


The Guardian of Happiness

by orphan_account



Series: To The End, To This Day [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Adult Frisk, Chara is a smol bundle of fury and rage and i think thats beautiful, Everbody strap in for a ride on the emotional rollercoaster, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Nonbinary Frisk, Other, Papyrus is too pure a cinnamon bun, Post-Soulless Pacifist Route, Resets, Swearing, Timelines, Told from sans point of view, Violence, Wanton death and destruction of everything you hold dear, Weird soul shenanigans, it's my own strange kinda AU though I guess, this isn't related to any AUs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-09-16
Packaged: 2018-05-30 20:35:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 18
Words: 31,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6439522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The barrier has been broken for eight years already, and everyone is enjoying life on the surface, except for one skeleton. Sans lives in fear of the world reseting again, even though Frisk promised him it wouldn't. After Frisk starts acting strangely, it's up to Sans to figure out a way to keep their happy ending safe. No matter what the cost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Finding The Words to Say

 

 

Sans sat on the bench with his hood up, allowing the warm spring breeze to blow over him. He had his eyes half closed as he pretended to nap, but he was watching closely the scene that was playing out in front of him.

“Dad, Pops, can I open it?” A small skeleton child, wearing a knee length purple and blue striped sun dress, stood holding a gift given to them by a human with a large smile on their face.

“Of course Darling!” Mettaton smiled, holding Papyrus’s hand.

“I TOO WISH TO SEE WHAT FRISK HAS GOT FOR YOU.” Papyrus yelled loud enough for the whole park to hear.

The skeleton child quickly unwrapped the gift and pulled out the hand knit red scarf that was inside. “Oh WOW! It’s just like what Pops wears!” The skeleton hurried over and gave the human a big hug.

“Try it on Arial!” Frisk said, smiling widely. They took a scarf out of their own pocket as Arial put on her scarf. “Look, we are the Red Scarf Brigade!”

“Oh like super heros?” Arial jumped up and down, her scarf blowing back in the wind a bit.

“Yes! We will protect the world from all evil!” Frisk laughed in a manner resembling Papyrus. Arial, Frisk, and Papyrus struck a pose together all laughing while Mettaton took a picture.

“You all look so fantastic!” Mettaton beamed.

Sans couldn’t help but to smile to himself. This happiness, could this feeling just last forever? He watched as Arial, Frisk, and Papyrus chased Mettaton around the park, declaring him the bad guy, and fought him by making ridiculous poses. It was moments like this that allowed Sans to forget about the past, and let him imagine a future. He could forget his fears, even for just this small amount of time. It was liberating.

Papyrus, Mettaton, and Arial had fallen down into a giggling pile. Sans hardly even noticed the human walk up and sit down next to him. They didn’t say a word, just pushed their hair back behind their ear and smiled at Sans. Their smile, it was beautiful, it could light up any darkness, even all the darkness still lingering in Sans soul. He smiled back. He was about to say something, when they pushed a piece of paper into his hands before running off to play with the others again.

Sans slowly opened the paper that was folded into a square. It said in neat handwriting. “I’ll see you at 6pm tonight. I need to tell you something.”

Frisk had come to visit Sans on several occasions, in his tiny apartment that he had moved into after Papyrus married Mettaton. They normally came to talk about their nightmares or their guilt. Sans was the only one who could really relate to them. This note felt different somehow. Sans felt all the calmness wash away to be replaced with worry. Surely they weren’t thinking of that, were they? After all this time? They wouldn’t reset now would they?

Sans stood up, his mind engulfed in worry, and took a shortcut back to his apartment. He looked around it with a sigh. There was dirty laundry piled up in places, the dishes were filling the sink, he hadn’t bothered to take out the trash even though it was already full. It was all pointless, when the world could be reset at any moment.

Sans of course, could still recall that conversation they had with Frisk seven years ago now, a year after the barrier broke.

Sans had been over at Toriel’s house. Toriel was helping Papyrus and Mettaton plan their wedding, which as Mettaton had put, had to be the most fabulous wedding of all time. Sans wasn’t all the interested in that, so he had been put in charge of watching Frisk.

They sat in the living room at the table, as Frisk was trying to do some of their homework, running their hand through their hair with frustration. “I just don’t get math!”

“I could sum it up for you kid.” Sans said, with a bit of a laugh.

“Sans!” They giggled. “But I could use your help.

“You see these decimals, that’s the point!” Sans laughed, and Frisk giggled some more. “Kid can we talk about something more serious though?” Sans eyes went darker.

“Uh, sure?” Frisk seemed startled by Sans change in mood.

“When are you going to reset the timeline again?” San’s voice was strained.

“Sans…” Frisk looked down at their homework and fiddled with the papers. “I don’t want to take away everyone’s happiness anymore. I can’t do that to everyone. I-I’m sorry about before.”

Sans sighed a breath of relief. He didn’t know how much he could trust the child, but at least they didn’t seem to want to reset anymore. “It’s okay buddy. Just promise me you won’t reset again.”

Frisk looked up at Sans, their eyes full of determination. “I promise.”

Sans still couldn’t pocket away his fears. After all, how many times had they reached the surface, only for Frisk to reset the world again? Countless times. And sometimes, after they reset, they had done the most terrible things. Sans tried to be happy, tried to move on with his life, but he just couldn’t. The ever growing fear of a reset loomed over him like a dark cloud.

Sans sat on his couch, watching the minutes tick by as he watched some dumb cartoons on his television. He wasn’t paying the slightest bit of attention to them, his mind wrapped up in his own dark thoughts.

It was a few minutes before six when a knock came at San’s door, bringing him back to reality. He got up sluggishly and answered it. Frisk was standing there, a small smile upon their face. They had changed into a different outfit, now wearing a black and white striped shirt that fell off their shoulders, showing the straps of a black tank top underneath, blue jeans with black boots that came up to almost their knees. It was a cute outfit to be sure. Sans let them in without a word.

Sans fell back onto his couch. Frisk went into his kitchen and grabbed a cup of water before coming back out and sitting down next to Sans. They nervously took sips of water, clearly trying to avoid talking.

“So uh, you got something to say to me?” Sans said, breaking the tense silence.

Frisk put the glass of water down on the coffee table. “Um, Sans. I’m selfish. I’m really really selfish.”

Sans could feel all his bones tightening. Bad news was coming, he could just tell. “Kid, you…”

“No, um, let me just say this before I lose my nerve. I’m sorry. I-I just.” Frisk looked Sans in the eyes, a worried yet kind smile upon their face. “I like you Sans.”

“What?” Sans sat up straight. That was not what he was expecting.

“I’ve liked you for a long time. I just, I know I’m so much younger than you, and I did terrible things to you before, so I can understand if you can’t accept my feelings, but I just had to tell you.” Frisk tilted their head to one side, and smiled so much brighter. “I like you Sans. I’m so happy I was finally able to tell you.”

Sans sat in silence. He didn’t know what to say. What could he even say. He liked Frisk too, but he was such a lazy slob, how could they ever like him? “Well I…” Sans couldn’t even finish his sentence.

Frisk didn’t seem bothered. They grinned and took ahold of San’s hand. They leaned closer and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek. Sans could feel himself blushing.

“I should probably go now, Mom will worry.” Frisk gave a worried laugh. “Thanks for listening.”

Frisk stood up and was halfway to the door when Sans called out. “You really like me?”

Frisk tilted their head to the side again, in that adorable way they always did, and said, “Yup. Bye Sans.”

They were out the door before Sans could say anything else. Sans put his hand against his chest. He could feel his soul pounding. He couldn’t believe what had just happened. It didn’t seem real. All of his dumb worries had been for nothing. But now, he felt so stupid. He hadn’t said anything back. Frisk must think he’s the biggest jerk. He quickly picked up his phone and texted them. “So Pal, if you want to hang out tomorrow, just let me know.” He smiled. Maybe this timeline really would never be reset. Maybe he could allow himself to be happy.

Sans waited a bit for a reply, but Frisk was well known for taking forever to reply to texts. So he put his phone on his bedside table and laid down. He wasn’t even really that tired, but before he knew it, he had drifted off.

Sans had a dream of many years ago. Frisk stood in front of him, but was it really Frisk? They lashed out at him, swiping their knife at him, smiling in a sinister way. Sans kept dodging, but he couldn’t keep it up forever. He tried to trap them, but he was so tired at that point. The child brought their knife down upon him, he dodged but it was too late. Another swipe came and Sans fell down.

Sans woke up, his soul pounding away. He heard a buzzing sound. His phone was ringing. Still in a half sleep daze, he picked it up.


	2. What Was Once There

“Sans?”

“Eh, Toriel, is that you?” Sans sat up in his bed. He was still wearing his clothes from the night before, and he felt disoriented from his nightmare. He had expected Frisk to be on the line for some reason, hearing Toriel’s voice startled him.

“Sorry for calling you so early.” Sans took a glance at his clock, it was just before five in the morning. Toriel knew that Sans would never be up that early. It must be important. “Did Frisk happen to spend the night at your house?”

For a moment Sans got lost in his own mind. There was the image of a sleepy Frisk in his arms as he woke up in the morning. Sans giving them a kiss on their forehead as they giggled. Such thoughts filled Sans with a distant longing. He shook the thoughts out of his mind. “Nope, I haven't seen them since yesterday. They said they were heading home, they didn't want to worry you…” Sans mind suddenly snapped to attention, if Toriel was calling now that meant that… “Frisk is missing?”

“Yes, my child has not been seen since yesterday. I am very worried about them.” The Queen kept her composure, but Sans could hear the immense worry caught in her throat.

“Have you called my brother? Undyne and Alphys?” 

“Yes, they have not seen Frisk either. This is so unlike them. Frisk always at least sends me a text if they are spending the night elsewhere. They have also not answered any of my calls or texts to them.” Toriel could hardly mask her concern now.

“I'll be there in five minutes.” Sans said, hanging up the phone and shoving it in his hoodie pocket. He wanted to change his clothes, but he felt the note Frisk had given him yesterday in his pocket. Guilt came flooding back. He hadn't even told them how he felt, and now they were missing.

As Sans got up to find his shoes, visions of Frisk getting kidnapped or worse ran through his head. He knew they must be alive somewhere. The timeline hadn't reset. They were alive somewhere, and probably in deep trouble. Frisk wasn’t always very popular with other humans, being the ambassador of the monsters. Undyne and the rest of the Royal Guard did their best to keep most of the troublesome humans out of their city, but they couldn’t be everywhere. Sans slipped on his shoes. Taking a shortcut from his apartment to…

The house that Toriel and Frisk shared together stood before him. Sans looked around him. It was still mostly dark out. He wasn't used to being up this early. Part of him wanted to go back to his bed and sleep until this was all over. He shook his head, and stepped forward to knock on the door.

Papyrus answered the door. “WOWIE BROTHER. YOU ARE ACTUALLY UP THIS EARLY. I AM SO PROUD OF YOU.”

“Hey bro. When did you get here?” Sans looked up at his younger brother. He was so cool, and now that he was a father, he was actually more adult. He didn't need Sans around anymore.

Papyrus let Sans in as he answered, “WE ALL GOT HERE EARLIER. TORIEL CALLED YOU LAST, SINCE YOU LOVE YOUR SLEEP SO MUCH.”

Sans looked around the living room. Toriel and Mettaton were sitting at the table, while Arial lay snuggled up on the couch, still wearing the scarf Frisk had given her the day before. “Yo.” Sans said, sitting next to Toriel at the table. He was desperately trying to keep his calm, while ever darker thoughts of terrible things that could've happened to Frisk ran through him mind. Now wasn't the time to panic.

“Good morning Sans.” Mettaton waved at him, his normally chipper tone muted a bit. Sans nodded back. For a long time Sans hadn't really liked the robot, but after seeing how happy he made his brother, Sans had warmed up to him. Papyrus sat down next to his husband.

“Sans, let me catch you up on the situation.” Toriel began in her regal tone. “Undyne is gathering up the Royal Guard right now for a search party. Alphys said she would go over any surveillance footage to see if they can spot Frisk.” Leave it to the Queen to have everyone at her side in a heartbeat. Of course all the monsters cared for Frisk deeply, so upon hearing they were missing, they all probably leapt to action.

“We could greatly use your help as well. You were the last one to see them, did they say anything to you? Did anything seem strange, like they were in danger?”

Sans was silent for a moment, searching his memories for anything of relevance. Frisk had been acting a bit odd yesterday, but Sans was pretty sure that had nothing to do with their disappearance. He couldn't bare to tell the others about that conversation anyway. It was far too embarrassing. They'd probably think he was lying anyway. After all, who would like a monster like Sans? Certainly not Frisk. Sans frowned. “The kid came over to have a chat with me, but they left pretty quickly. Frisk said that they were going home.”

“What did you two talk about?” Mettaton asked calmly.

Sans could feel himself sweating a bit. He felt like was being interrogated. He answered slowly, trying to not really lie. “They were asking me about a crush they had. Some kid at their college. I'm not the best at romance, so I dunno why they came to me.” Sans could barely look the others in the eyes.

“Did they mention a name?” Toriel asked kindly.

Sans could feel himself sweating even more. Now he had implicated a nonexistent person in Frisk’s disappearance. Sans felt himself getting trapped further in a tangled web of lies. He couldn’t exactly back out of it now. “‘Fraid not.”

“When did they leave?” Toriel seemed unfazed by Sans evasiveness, choosing to get more pertinent facts.

“Probably a bit after six.” At least Sans didn't have to lie about that.

Toriel was already tapping away at her phone, no doubt relaying the information to Undyne and Alphys. 

“Do you know anything else Sans? Anything could help. I am so scared for Frisk.” Toriel’s hands tightened around her cell.

Sans could still feel himself sweating. He pondered for a moment why he was so nervous. After all, lying was second nature to him now. Hiding behind that mask he called a smile. He pulled himself together and looked Toriel in the eyes, “I'm sorry, I wish I could be of more help.” Sans bit back the urge to make a pun about wish bones, the time hardly seemed appropriate.

No one else had a chance to speak, as Toriel’s phone started ringing. She answered it, and put it on speakerphone.

“Uh, h-hey guys.” Alphys nervous voice echoed around the living room. Arial moved a bit on the couch, before pulling a pillow over her head. “So I got some of the security footage from near San’s apartment.”

Everyone waited, holding their collective breaths, waiting to hear what Alphys had discovered. “Frisk looks pretty happy here, so I, u  
mm, don't think they were in any danger at this point. They start moving, uhh, west, so away from their house.”

Toriel had a look of dismay on her face. “Where did they head from there?”

“Frisk continues in that direction. Uh, it appears that they umm, think they are being followed. They keep ducking poles and looking behind. I can't see anyone following them. Okay now they are uhh…”

“Yes?” Toriel asked with a bit too much force, making Alphys give a startled squeak. “I'm sorry, do continue.”

Alphys laughed nervously. “They uh, appear to be arguing with someone. I don't see anyone. Maybe they are on their phone? I can't see clearly enough.” 

Toriel frowned. Papyrus nervously took Mettaton’s hand in his own, while Mettaton patiently patted him on the shoulder. Papyrus looked like he was on verge of tears already. “THEY WERE IN SOME KIND OF DANGER!” He cried out, unable to contain himself. “WHY WOULDN’T THEY CALL ME? I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS WOULD RESCUE THEM FROM ANY PERIL.”

“Let's hear what else Alphys sees,” Toriel said, patting Papyrus’s hand.

“So from there, they continue to walk, but they aren't arguing anymore. They umm, they walked out of the city? I can't track then from there, there are no cameras outside t-the city proper.”

“Thank you Alphys, that was very helpful. I will call Undyne and let her know where the Royal Guard can start searching.” 

Sans was fidgeting in his chair. He was trying to piece the puzzle together. Who was the human talking to? And why did they walk out of the city? Sans couldn't figure it out. He stood up suddenly, his chair making a loud scratching noise against the floor, scaring everyone else. 

“I am going to look too.” And he was gone before anyone could say a word.

Sans stood on the outskirts of the city, where Frisk had probably been. He felt a warmth from behind him. The sun was starting to rise now. Sans put up one of his hands like he was trying to grab it. It’d been so long since he really admired the sun. Wasn’t this the whole reason they wanted to get to the surface, to be free? To be able to see amazing sights like this? Sans hadn’t really ever taken in the sights of the surface, too long had he been trapped in his own mind.

Sans felt silly, and put down his hand. He wondered if Alphys could see him on one of her many cameras. He wondered if the others were talking about him when he wasn’t there. It filled him with dread. Did they all think that he had been lying, or hiding something from them? He didn’t want to think about that right now. He had other things to worry about, like finding Frisk.

Sans turned back around, and saw the looming shape of Mt Ebott in the distance. It seemed bigger than he remembered, but maybe that’s just because of the dim light. He started walking towards it when his phone in his pocket started buzzing at him. He pulled it out, seeing a text message from Papyrus.

And a message from Frisk?


	3. The Messages

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed the rating to mature because the themes seemed a little dark for teen. Yup.

Sorry Sans. I really am selfish. I shouldn't have told you that. And I don't know how to tell you this. I am going to disappear forever. It's the only way for everyone to be happy. So please don't be sad. Sorry.  
3:34am

Sans had ignored the text message from his brother and opened the one from Frisk first. He stood still. His body felt numb. Everything else in the world had just disappeared except for the words on the screen. Nothing made sense. Slowly Sans started to shake, his body weaving back and forth. He thrust his phone back in his pocket, and in a second he was…

Standing back in his apartment. The glass that Frisk had been drinking from yesterday was still sitting on his coffee table. He picked it up with his magic and threw it against the wall. It shattered sending shards of glass and puddles of water onto the floor. Sans used his magic again, his eye flashing blue and gold, and threw his entire coffee table over his couch, against his bedroom door. It broke with a sickening crack. Sans was sweating now, a rage boiling up inside that he couldn't understand. He used his magic to start throwing anything he could reach until he became exhausted, collapsing on the floor.

Sans looked at the floor with the broken glass. He couldn't comprehend the message Frisk had sent him. Disappear forever, did they mean to kill themself? If Frisk died, the world would be reset. They had to be alive still. Unless, they knew of a way to die and not reset? Or they had lost their powers? Or something else? Sans couldn't concentrate. His mind felt like it was full of angry buzzing bees, and he was so, so tired.

Sans thought of Frisk the last time he had saw them. Dressed up so cutely, their smile shining, the kiss they had gently pressed against his cheek. How could they have acted like that, and then gone off to disappear? Sans felt his own smile waver. Well didn't he hide behind a smile as well?

Sans took his phone out of his pocket. He couldn't bare to tell the others what the text said. He didn't know what to do, so he opened the text from Papyrus.

ARE YOU OKAY? YOU ARE ACTING STRANGELY.  
5:47am

Sans should've known that Papyrus would be able to see through his lies. 

bro, can you come to my apartment? i need you.  
6:34am

Sans sat staring blankly at the wall after he sent the text message. He couldn't even think anymore. Everything was numb. Nothing felt real. The shards of glass on the floor were glinting with a dangerous light, they were the only thing he could really focus on. Frisk had been here only twelve hours before. Frisk had been drinking from that glass. Frisk had been so very much alive. They couldn't be gone now. Sans scooted closer and fruitlessly tried to put the pieces of the glass back together.

He didn't hear the knocking at his door, the voice calling out to him, or the eventual opening of the door and footsteps behind him.

“Sans?” Papyrus’s voice was small.

“It's all broken bro. I can't fix it.” Sans said, holding up the shards of glass. 

“What's wrong?” Papyrus asked gently, placing his long arm around San’s shoulders.

Sans couldn't reply. In his mind, the glass was Frisk. If he could fix the glass, Frisk would come back, right? 

Papyrus shook him gently. “Sans, talk to me. Did you find Frisk? Are they de…” Papyrus couldn't finish.

It had been longer than Sans could remember since the last time he cried so he was the most surprised when he felt tears welling up in his eyes. He blinked them back. He pulled out his phone and opened up the text message from Frisk.

Papyrus took the phone in his hands. Sans couldn't look at him, but he heard a gasping noise, and the clattering of his phone as it fell to the floor.

“I DON'T UNDERSTAND.” Papyrus suddenly shouted. “FRISK?!” 

Papyrus wrapped his arms around Sans, his whole body heaving with loud sobs. Sans slowly put his arms around his brother, holding him tightly. Papyrus didn't let go for a long time.

When Papyrus finally let go, he spoke with a sorrowful raspy voice. “We have to tell Toriel.”

Sans didn't move. He thought of going to tell everyone, everyone crying, the prying questions. He didn't think he could do it. “I don't think I can go.”

Before he knew it he was in his brother’s arms and over his shoulder. It was pointless to resist, so he just sighed. “I’M NOT LEAVING YOU ALONE!” Papyrus bent over to retrieve the cell phone from the floor and walked out the door and down the stairs at a pace most people would consider to be running. It had been such a long time since Sans had even used the front door, since he was too lazy and would teleport up. He felt comforted for the moment. Papyrus always did that to him. He dozed off.

He was woken when they reached Toriel’s house, and Papyrus set him back down. Sans could feel himself shaking. Could he really show them all the text message?

Toriel let them in, and looked at them with worried glances. She put her hand against her chest as she asked, “Did something happen?”

Papyrus was silent for once, and handed over Sans phone to Toriel. Sans wanted to grab it, but restrained himself. He watched as Toriel read the message, then sat down quickly in a chair, her face in horror. “My child?”

“We can't give up looking for them. They could still be…” Sans paused, clearing his throat. “They are out there somewhere still.”

Toriel looked sick to her stomach. Mettaton had come over and taken a look at the phone. His expression turned to shock before he knelt down next to the goat monster and patted her arm. “Sans is right, we can't be sad until we know anything for sure. Keep hopeful.” Mettaton gave an award winning smile. Toriel smiled back in appreciation.

Arial, who had been sleeping on the couch stirred, sitting up rubbing her eyes. She looked around the room, trying to read the mood. “Did you find Frisk? I want to play superheroes with them again.”

Mettaton stood back up and went to his daughter's side, sitting on the couch. “Not yet, Sunshine.” He placed a hand on her bony head. “I am sure we all will be playing again soon.” Everyone in the room tried their best to smile. Sans couldn't help but to admire how well Mettaton dealt with the situation.

Mettaton motioned his husband over. “Darling, can you take Arial home? She needs to get ready for school.”

Papyrus nodded, gently picking up his daughter and walking out the door as Arial waved bye to them.

As soon as they were gone, Mettaton approached Sans, who was still standing by the door, his face more rigid than before, “Sans, what do you know about this?” Mettaton shoved Sans a bit, almost causing him to fall backwards. Sans put his arm up, his eyes going black. He remembered why he didn’t like Mettaton all that much before. If Mettaton wanted a fight, Sans would deliver.

Toriel, who was on her own phone, probably updating Undyne with the most recent information, looked up. “There will be no fighting in my house.”

“Sans knows more than he told us this morning. He lied to us. When he knew that Frisk was in danger. Why didn’t you show us this text before? What did they tell you yesterday?” Mettaton roughly grabbed onto Sans arm.

Sans looked up at Mettaton with disgust. He was angry, but he knew he was in the wrong. “I'll talk if you let me go,” Sans all but growled.

“Fine, go sit down.” Mettaton commanded. 

Sans went and sat at the table, he slumped over, and looked down. “I didn't read the message until a little bit ago. When Papyrus texted me. Sorry.” Sans slightly lifted his head to look at Mettaton, who had sat down across from him, his arms and legs both crossed, his leg shaking angrily. Sans continued, “As for what we were talking about...Frisk told me they liked me.”

Both Toriel and Mettaton looked over at Sans in shock, then at each other. “What did you say back?” Mettaton asked after a moment.

“I didn't say nothin’, and they left after that. But they didn't seem upset, they said they were happy they could finally tell me.” Sans felt terrible. If he had said something, done something, maybe this wouldn't have happened. Sans felt like he was going to be sick. In his mind, he saw Frisk, broken and dying somewhere, just like the shards of glass earlier. “It's all broken now.”


	4. Sometimes to Stay Alive...

Sans was laying curled up on the couch, his hood pulled up and his body turned away from the table where Toriel and Mettaton sat, pretending to sleep. He couldn't sleep right now, despite his great desire to do so. He felt exhausted. But the angry buzzing in his mind wouldn't let him. The thoughts racing around in his mind like bees. He caught bits of the conversation the other two monsters were holding, as they spoke in low hushed tones.

“How can he sleep now?” Mettaton asked.

“Everyone deals with stress differently.” Toriel said. 

“Well, I think he should be awake. I have more questions for him. I still think he is lying.”

“What do you mean?”

Sans could hear Mettaton shifting in his chair, speaking even lower now. “Well if Frisk has feelings for him, and they confessed to him, do you really think he did and said nothing?” Mettaton paused for a moment. “What if he did something to them that made them run away.”

“I really do not think Sans would do anything to hurt Frisk. Frisk trusts him. They always go to him when they have nightmares. They share a special bond.” Toriel spoke so kindly. “And he made me a promise. To never hurt Frisk. I trust that he will always keep that promise.”

“Why are you defending him?” Mettaton's voice rose slightly. “We already know he was lying about one thing. What if there is still more we don't know?”

“You can not blame Sans for this. Frisk has been acting strange lately. They kept locking themself in their room, and I heard shouting. I am their mother. I should have seen the signs that not all was right.” Toriel took in a sharp breath.

“Dear, dear, you can't get upset now.” There were sounds like Mettaton had stood up now. “The Royal Guard will find Frisk and bring them back to us safely.”

For a while they didn't speak, leaving Sans to his own thoughts, thoughts black as night and cold as winter. He knew something was wrong here. He just had to fit the pieces together. Frisk wouldn't just disappear on everyone for no reason. He just had to find the reason.

Papyrus came in at some point. Sans could hear him sobbing and Mettaton comforting him. Sans couldn't even cheer up his own brother, he was too lost in his own thoughts. He wanted Frisk to be back right now. He wanted to joke around with everyone and not have to listen to his brother cry. He felt like there was a large rock in his stomach, weighing him down.

A knock came at the door, who knows how much later. Sans sat up when he heard Undyne’s voice. She stood in the doorway wearing all her armor except for her helmet. The fins on her face were pulled downwards.

She came in a sat at the table, her normal boisterous attitude gone. She spoke, looking at Toriel. “I don't know where to begin.” She pulled at the neck of her armor, her face flush.

“Did you find Frisk?” Toriel asked, a panic in her voice.

Undyne cleared her throat. “Dogamy and Dogaressa picked up their scent outside the city. We followed it to Mt Ebott. To the cliff on the top of the mountain. Frisk is…”

Sans wasn't there anymore.

Sans stood on the cliff on Mt Ebott, the place where monsters had emerged from so many years ago. He looked out over the city. It seemed so distant, like a dream. He hadn't waited for Undyne to finish her sentence before he left. He already knew what she was going to say. “Frisk is gone.” They hadn't been able to find Frisk. Sans thought he knew why. The pieces of the puzzle had all come together.

Sans took a step forward

Into his living room. It was still destroyed, Sans hadn't realized what a mess he had made. He had to climb over his own broken coffee table to get into his room. He had to retrieve something. As he looked around his room for it, his mind wandered back to a night a couple of weeks ago.

…

There was a knock at the door. “It's open.” Sans called out. He was sitting on his couch watching some late night cartoons. Frisk entered, wearing a plain white t-shirt and a pair of pajama pants with a leopard print. Their eyes were red and puffy.

“I had a nightmare again.” They said softly, their voice slightly higher in pitch than normal. They sat down next to Sans. “I'm sorry Sans, I'm so sorry. I killed you and…”

Sans put his hand on their shoulder, stopping them. “I know kid. I know. It's okay.”

Frisk started crying, burying their face in their hands. Sans hated to see them like this, so helpless and sad. Sans pulled them into his lap, and Frisk buried their face against his chest, sobbing. Sans held onto them tightly, feeling their warm body against his, rubbing their back. He'd do anything if he could take their pain away.

“Thank you,” Frisk said, their face still buried in his hoodie. They looked up at him. “You are the only one who understands. It hurts so much still.”

Sans nodded. “I know.” He patted them on the arm.

Suddenly Frisk's face went dark. They grabbed their head in their hands and screamed “SHUT UP.”

“Woah, kid are you okay?” Sans held them tighter, but they thrashed against him so fiercely he let them go, afraid he would hurt them.

Frisk leapt out of his lap, and made a mad dash for the kitchen, “Where are the knives?” 

Sans took a shortcut directly behind them and grabbed them around the middle, pinning their arms to the side. His soul was pounding wildly in his chest. This wasn't like Frisk at all. It reminded him of... back then. “What's wrong with you? What's going on?”

Frisk shook their head, and seemed to calm down. “Sorry it's just Chara.”

“Chara?”

“Never mind. Just forget I said anything.” Sans let go of Frisk. “Let's just go and watch some dumb cartoons, okay?”

Sans just nodded. He was too tired to pursue the matter further. Frisk smiled at him, grabbing his hand and pulling him back to the couch.

…

The memory faded from Sans mind. He had found it. Now he just had to...

Frisk was sitting on his couch.

“What?”

He blinked and they were gone. Was he hallucinating now? Had he lost his mind?

When he looked ahead Frisk was standing there smiling. “Sans...”

They were gone again.

Then against the wall that Sans had thrown the glass before, Frisk was leaning nonchalantly. They gave him an easy smile, tilting their head to the side in that adorable way they always did. “We can still fix this.”

They were gone again.

Sans put his head in his hands, closing his eyes tightly. This couldn't be good. 

Sans took a step forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are about to get crazy! Thanks for reading this far :)


	5. ...You Gotta Kill Your Mind

Sans could feel the snow crunch under his feet. He opened his eyes. The wintery town of Snowdin lay before him. It had been so long since he had last been here. The town looked almost the same as before, as if it was preserved in a magic time capsule. Maybe it was magic.

Sans made his way through town, he passed by Grillby’s, and he put his hand against the window. A memory came flooding back to him.

…

 

“Your brother is the coolest!” Frisk laughed.

“Of course he's cool. You'd be cool too if you wore that outfit everyday. He'd only take that thing off if he absolutely had to. Oh well. At least he washes it. And by that I mean he wears it in the shower!” Sans laughed and Frisk joined him.

Grillby brought them over their orders of fries. Frisk dug in before Sans could even offer them ketchup. Frisk looked at Sans. “Hey Sans, how come you never talk about yourself?”

Sans raised an eyebrow at them. They had this conversation several times before in different timelines, but the kid had never asked him a question before. 

Frisk continued. “You always talk about Papyrus, but what about you? Tell me something about yourself.”

“I dunno kid, there isn't much to say.”

“I'll tell you something about me if you tell me something about you.”

Sans nodded. “Sure, go ahead.” Sans was curious, in all the timelines, Frisk never really said anything about themselves.

“Okay. So have you ever heard of the place between?” Sans shook his head no. “It's a special place only I can go. It's where I can use my powers over the timelines.”

“How do you get there?” Sans asked.

“Secret! Okay now it's your turn.”

“I guess the only thing I can say is that as much as I love Papyrus, there is someone I hate just as much.”

Frisk had a look of grave concern and worry. “Who?”

“Me.”

…

Sans looked at his reflection in the window of Grillby’s. He looked terrible. He had dark circles under his eyes, and his smile looked forced and unnatural. Then he saw something else. “Frisk?”  
Sans turned around wildly. There was no one there. Another hallucination? 

He decided to ignore it for now. He had more important things to worry about. His phone was buzzing at him, but he didn't bother to check it. Instead he felt in his pocket for the small metal object. The key to his lab.

Sans went behind his old house and opened the door to his former lab. He hadn't come back here since monsters left the Underground. Now though, there was something he needed. 

Sans knelt in front of the cabinets. He opened one slowly, and saw it there. A bottle of a glowing liquid. It shimmered from blue to gold and back again. He couldn't help but to think to back then, to what felt like another life. When he was just a child. Before that man vanished.

…

Sans sat on a chair in the Royal Laboratory. He was in a room with blank white walls and no decorations. He hated it here. He knew what was coming already. He didn't want to do this again. He bent over on himself, his breathing becoming rapid. 

He heard the door open, and footsteps falling on the tile floor. It was him. Sans looked up, terrified. That man came up to him, holding a needle full of that strange liquid. Sans shook his head in fear. “Please, I don't want to. Not again.”

“You will take my injection. Don't you understand how important this is? I made you, you will obey me.” The man grabbed onto Sans arm. “We will soon have the power. You just have to keep taking it.”

“Please…”

“Now. Or your brother will be punished.”

Sans let the doctor give him the shot.

…

Sans felt the same fear he had felt back then now. He looked at the liquid determination he held in his hands. If anything could help him save Frisk, this would be it. He had no needles here, besides he doubted he’d be able to give himself more than one injection before the pain got too bad. Instead he gulped down the entire bottle.

He started coughing. It tasted like something he couldn't quite describe. Like matches doused in hot sauce. He tried to stay calm. He didn't know the effects of drinking determination instead of injecting it, but he could only assume he was in for an unpleasant experience.

It hurt so bad. Sans doubled over, clenching his ribs. Sans felt as if every bone in his body was on fire, and burning ever hotter. His eye began to flash blue and gold again. Sans felt as if his very bones were melting from the sheer heat of the raw determination. Well, they probably were. He couldn't let that happen. Not here. This place existed outside the normal time stream. He didn't want to think about what would happen if he accidentally died here. Probably something similar to what happened to the doctor.

Sans managed to stand up, clutching the side of his cabinet. All he had to do was take one step.

Sans was back in his apartment. He fell over again. He wasn't sure if he could stand. His mind was full of a loud screaming noise. No wait, Sans was screaming. He didn't even realize. He was scared. If this didn't work, he'd be boned for sure. Even if it did work, there was really no guarantee he could get back. He had to stop thinking. He just had to act.

After a few agonizing minutes of attempting to stand up, Sans grabbed the edge of his couch and hoisted himself up. He couldn't wait much longer, he would melt if he did.

Sans took slow shuffling steps into his kitchen, trying to avoid the debris from everything he had thrown earlier that day. He grabbed ahold of the kitchen cabinet, steadying himself. He pulled open a drawer and found the sharpest knife he could. It would be quick. A voice called out to him. He couldn't understand it over his own screaming, so he ignored it. Probably just another hallucination. He pulled out his soul. He felt a hand on his shoulder, but he ignored that as well.

He plunged the knife into his soul. It cracked into pieces. Sans fell down backwards, into someone's arms? With fading vision, Sans saw Papyrus holding him, shouting something, tears staining his face. Sans felt his stomach drop. It was already too late to explain. Sans blinked, and for a moment he was sure he saw Frisk as well.

And then there was nothing.


	6. The Game is Not Played Alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long! I had writer's block!

Sans looked around him. The fact that he could see at all was proof that he hadn't completely failed. He couldn't see much. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the light. He was in a room that was so dark he couldn't tell where the walls were supposed to begin, everything seemed to be enveloped by the inky darkness. One thing he could see, lying not far from him, was a lone figure on the ground unmoving. 

“Frisk!” Sans ran as fast as he could to their side. He reached out to touch them, but as his hand got close he felt an awful burning sensation. What? “Frisk!” He shouted again.

Frisk stirred. They looked up at Sans, joy crossing their face only to be replaced with terror. “Sans? What are you doing here?” 

“What are you doing here?” Sans fired back.

“No you can't be here, you don't understand. Chara is going to kill you!” Frisk reached out to push Sans away, but they too looked as if they had been burned by something.

“Comedian. I am so happy you could make it.” A chillingly sweet voice came from behind Sans. He turned, and saw a shadow moving in the darkness.

“SANS! RUN!” Frisk’s voice shouted again. Sans felt like he couldn't move. What was going on here?

“My dear comic friend.” The voice was closer. It sounded so much like Frisk. “You really are pathetic aren't you?” Sans saw a shape forming out of the darkness. It looked like Frisk? “You just had to be a knight in shining armor, here to save your loved one in distress.” The not Frisk waved a hand in front of their face. They changed, their eyes glowing red and their smile all wrong. “How exactly did you plan on saving Frisk?”

“Who are you kid?” Sans asked with a sneer.

“Why I am Chara! Frisk’s little soul buddy. You didn't answer my question.” Chara seemed to glide across the room, grabbing onto Sans’ arm, lifting him from the ground. “How did you plan on saving Frisk?”

Sans tried to use his magic to throw Chara across the room, but found he couldn't. He tried to teleport away, but he couldn't move. He tried to summon bones to impale Chara on, but none came. His magic was completely gone.

Chara laughed deviously. “This is so entertaining! Watching you struggle. It's pointless. Whatever your stupid plan was, it won't work. I control Frisk’s soul, you can't touch it.” Chara threw Sans to the ground. “Swallowing all that determination? All that pain you felt? Killing yourself in front of your brother? All pointless. But so very funny!”

Sans sat up, his eyes fierce. “How do you know about that?”

“Oh, Mr. Funny Bones, I was watching you. I’m a ghost, I’m not bound to this place like Frisk is. I can't do anything without a body though. You have so much determination now. I think I found a new host.” Chara’s grin grew wider.

“Sans, you have to escape!” Frisk cried.

“Sans, you have to escape.” Chara mocked. “He can't escape. And if you won't reset the timeline, I bet Sans will. He drank all that determination after all. He has the power now.” 

“I am not gonna reset the world bucko. I came here to get Frisk, and we are going back to the real world.” Sans said.

Frisk cried. “I can't go back Sans. I'll just try to kill you again.”

“What?” He remembered the night where Frisk had gone after his knives and felt sick.

“Frisk can't help themselves. They just keep on killing. Why do you think they keep resetting the world after you got to the surface? Because they killed one of their precious friends. I never could get them to kill you though. You really have to applaud them for lasting eight years and not taking a single soul! And then locking themself in the place between so they couldn't hurt anyone ever again. Such a brave, tragic soul.”

Sans had assumed that was Frisk’s plan, or something similar. He felt terrible. How could he save them? How could he make everything right again?

“I can make you an offer Sans. I can fix this. I can bring the world back to how it was. You can have Frisk back. I know how much you want them.” 

Sans felt the corners of his mouth pulling down. “How?”

“Don't listen to them Sans!” Frisk sounded so distraught, but Sans ignored them. He would save them. He had to.

“Let me have your soul! Then we can go back to before. Frisk will be back to normal. And then we can have some fun together.”

Sans contemplated what Chara was saying. If he gave Chara his soul, Frisk could go free right? Frisk had lived with Chara for who knows how long. Sans could do it too. Anything to bring back Frisk's smile. “I'll do it if you promise to free Frisk. No funny business. If you hurt Frisk you will have a bad time.” Chara nodded.

Frisk was crying. “Sans, you don't understand. You can't do this. I was trying to protect you, you don't have to sacrifice yourself for my sake.”

“Hon, it's like you said. I'm selfish. I just want to see that smile of yours again.” Sans gave Frisk a brave grin. “Don't worry about me. Okay Chara. Go ahead.”

Frisk tried to stand up to stop Sans, but they couldn't seem to stand up. Sans summoned his soul out of his chest. Chara walked up to it smiling. “You made the right choice. This is going to be so much fun!” Chara took ahold of Sans’ soul. Sans began to feel sick. It didn't hurt, it felt more like he was being invaded. He was no longer himself. Chara started to fade, their form vanishing little by little, and Sans’ soul started to become redder and redder. He started to hear a voice in his head. “Now we can reset this world. With your power, I can finally destroy humanity!”

“Heh, you can try, but it won't be that easy.”

Sans saw a shimmering word appear before him. Reset. He pushed it. Everything went black.


	7. Life Has A Hopeful Undertone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is how I do fluff :D

Sans wasn't sure what he expected when the world reset. He hadn't really thought it through that much. Or anything today really. What a mess everything had turned into. He imagined that he'd find himself back in the Underground, back in his bed where he had been when Frisk first fell into the Underground. That he'd have to relive the past eight years again. And this time he'd have to do it with a demonic little brat in his soul. 

What he hadn't expected though, was this.

Sans felt his sensations come flooding back to him as he gasped for air. His eyes flew open to find him in his kitchen, in his apartment. A knife was in his hands, pointing towards his now glowing red soul. A hand was on his shoulder. He could hear a very loud voice crying.

“SANS, PLEASE BROTHER WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

Sans dropped the knife onto the ground, hearing it noisily clatter. He spun around to face Papyrus. He had no idea how he was even here or how to explain what he was doing. He couldn't even think straight. Papyrus had a look of utter anguish on his face, it broke Sans’ heart. 

“Sans, what is going on?” Papyrus was quieter now, tears falling down his face. “Why have you been acting so strangely today? Is it because of Frisk? We will find them, you can't give up hope.” Papyrus pulled Sans into his arms tightly. “I can't lose you too. Please Sans. I need my big brother.”

Sans felt terrible. Papyrus had been through so much today, and part of it was Sans’ fault. He couldn't even explain to Papyrus about what had happened. There was no way he would understand that Sans had been to another dimension and was now carrying the soul of a murderer. Sans sighed deeply. “I'm okay bro. I'm sorry if I scared you. Everything is okay.”

Papyrus held onto him for a few more minutes until his tears subsided. When he finally released Sans, he said, “I don't think everything is okay. What's going on? I can help you, no matter what it is.”

Sans wished he could tell Papyrus everything, but there was no point. He assumed even if he did, Chara would try to stop him. Where was Chara anyway? He had expected more of their inane chattering in his head about killing all of humanity but they had been silent this whole time. He'd have to ask Frisk about them. Wait a second. “Frisk!”

“What about Frisk?” Papyrus looked worried.

Sans hadn't really meant to say that part out loud. Well too late now. “I know where they are. C’mon bro, let's go get them.”

Papyrus looked like he was about to say something, but Sans grabbed his hand and took a step forward.

Into the Underground. The place where Frisk had fallen all those years ago in the ruins. There upon a golden bed of flowers lay the figure of a human. His human. His Frisk.

Sans let go of Papyrus’s hand and actually ran over to Frisk. “Kid! Are you alright?” He knelt down next to them, and shook them gently. Frisk’s eyes fluttered open.

“Sans?”

Papyrus was next to them now. “Human!” He scooped Frisk up into his arms and held them like they were still a child. “You are okay!”

Frisk looked bewildered, but happy. “Yes. I'm fine.”

“Alright, what do you say sweetheart, how about we get you home? Your mom has been very worried about you.” Sans said with a bit of a wink. He felt a strange emotion in his soul. Frisk was okay and they couldn't reset the world anymore. Everything was going to be better now. This feeling, it was hope. Sans finally had hope again. He smiled, a real and true smile.

Frisk looked a bit guilty, but smiled back and nodded. Papyrus stood up with Frisk still in his arms. Sans grabbed ahold of his arm and took a step forward.

They all stood in front of Toriel’s house. Sans took a deep breath. He didn't know how to explain everything, but he had a feeling it would all work out somehow. 

Papyrus ran up to the door and threw it open, bursting through. “Frisk is back!”

Sans followed behind, his grin growing wider as he saw Mettaton and Toriel jump out of their chairs and run over to Papyrus.

“My child! Are you injured!” Toriel was the first to speak.

Frisk shook their head, and looked up at Papyrus. “You can put me down now.”

“Of course!”

Papyrus lowered Frisk to the ground. Frisk wrapped their arms around Toriel. “I'm so sorry mom. I'm sorry.”

“It's okay my child, I am so happy you are back safely now.” Toriel was smiling while tears ran down her face. 

Mettaton on the other hand was now looking at Sans suspiciously. “Yes, it's so nice to have you back safely darling. But where were you?” He asked at Frisk, but was still looking at Sans menacingly.

“I uh. I wanted to go visit the Underground. But I got dizzy and lightheaded. I guess I passed out. I didn't mean to worry you all.” Frisk looked down at their feet nervously. 

“Oh how strange that the dogs couldn't find you there, yet Sans could.” Mettaton said, with a smile that was almost frightening. “Strange how your tracks just stopped and vanished, almost like you disappeared or maybe teleported somewhere. Hmm, who do we know that has teleporting powers and who has been acting very suspicious all day?” Mettaton made a big act of pretending to think, his hand pressed against his head. His eyes widened dramatically, and he pointed at Sans. “Why, that would be you!” 

Sans sighed deeply. How on earth would he ever manage to explain himself. He had been strange all day. The lies, the teleporting away, and what looked to Papyrus, an attempted suicide. He could feel sweat forming on his skull as everyone looked at him. “I, uh…”

“Sans didn't do anything!” Frisk suddenly shouted. “He always promised to protect me right? Mettaton, you have to believe me. Sans is a great guy.”

Sans could feel a faint blush on his cheekbones. He really did like Frisk, and hearing them defend him so adamantly brought forth all kinds of renewed feelings. He wished he could have some time alone with them to discuss those feelings, and ask about this Chara character that was now attached to his soul. That didn't seem possible right now.

“Heh, you know me, I'm great, no bones about it.” Sans said, hearing Papyrus give a slight groan at the terrible joke.

“Fine.” Mettaton said crossing his arms and looking away from Sans.

“Brother,” Papyrus looked at him with concern. “You need to stop avoiding the issue. Why did you try to....” He paused momentarily, his voice caught in his throat. “Why did you try to kill yourself? We are all here to help you now. Do you need to go to the hospital? Please I want to help.”

Everyone was staring at Sans again, even Mettaton had concern in his eyes. “Uh, Bro, can we not talk about this right now, Frisk is back, we should make some spaghetti or something for them.”

Papyrus ran up to Sans and threw his arms around him. “Sans, please talk to me! Why are you doing this?”

Sans wanted to sink into the floor right then and there. He didn't know what to say. For years he had been depressed, but now, now he felt the happiest he had in over a decade. He couldn't explain that to Papyrus though. He stayed silent.

“Brother? I know how sad you've been. I know you don't think I realized, but I know. I'm sorry I haven't been there for you more. I didn't know how much you were suffering. Please forgive me.” Papyrus gently stroked Sans back.

“I'm okay now really. Everything is gonna be okay now.” Sans tried to comfort his brother. He wished the timeline had been set to just before his brother had seen him. Sans loved him so much he never wanted to put him through so much grief.

Slowly Papyrus let him go. “Well, if you say so! But if you ever need to talk, I, the great Papyrus, will be here for you!” Papyrus said boisterously. 

“I know. Now c’mon, why don't we get some grub, I bet the kid is starving.” Frisk nodded. It seemed that everything could go back to normal now.

They spent the day all together, and aside from some nasty looks from Mettaton, everything was pretty normal. Toriel kept a close watch on Frisk, making sure they weren't sick or injured. She insisted that Frisk stay home from classes the next day, just in case, Frisk, with a sigh, agreed. Sans kept looking for opportunities to get Frisk alone to talk, but with everyone hovering over them, it seemed impossible at the moment.

Eventually Papyrus and Mettaton left to pick up Arial from school. Papyrus gave Sans a much longer hug than normal before leaving. He was obviously still worried, but was trying to not show it. Papyrus really was the best.

Sans left shortly after. Frisk looked tired, and Sans was as well. He hadn't even taken a real nap today, plus he should probably clean up his apartment. He tried to remember if he had any of his jobs to work today, but he couldn't recall. Eh, they could get along without him anyway.

Sans teleported back to his apartment, wincing at the mess. Maybe he could clean later. He climbed over the coffee table and into his room. He felt so tired. Before he knew it, he was out like a light.

He woke up to the buzzing of his phone in his pocket. He pulled it out, his eyes bleary, looking at the time. It was just after one in the morning. Had he really slept that much? His sleep schedule would be all messed up. Not that it was ever all that normal. He saw he had a message from Frisk.

Are you awake?  
1:05am

yeah, what's up?  
1:06am

We have a lot to talk about, can you come over? I don't think mom would be too happy if I left right now.  
1:06am

Sans didn't bother to reply, getting up and then finding himself in Frisk's room. It was tidy, at least in comparison to Sans’ room. Frisk had a small dresser in one corner, the top covered in anime figures probably given to them by Alphys or Papyrus. They had a desk piled with books and papers, the chair next to it currently had some dirty clothes on it. They had some posters on the wall, even one of Mettaton, that Sans always wanted to deface. They had a full size bed up against the far wall, covered in a comforter patterned with yellow flowers. The bed also currently contained a Frisk, who was sitting cross legged, staring down at a phone in their hands.

“Hey hon.” Sans said.

Frisk gave a startled gasp. “Sans! Don't scare me like that. Mom is sleeping.” They didn't really sound angry, and in fact even gave a small giggle. They motioned Sans over and patted the bed.

Sans sat down next to them, the second he did Frisk had their arms around him, holding him tightly, their head against his chest. “Sans, thank you for saving me, but do you realize what you've done? Chara is evil!”

Sans felt happy to be so close to Frisk again. He rested his chin on their head and stroked their back. They still had a faint scent of the golden flowers on them. It was relaxing. “I don't care what I've done. I got you back now. That's all that matters. But, uh, who is Chara exactly? Isn't that the name of the first human who fell into the Underground?”

Frisk pulled away from Sans and looked at him. They gave a small nod. “Yeah. When I fell into the Underground, they attached their soul to mine, somehow. They started controlling me. They made me do those bad things. Now they are going to do the same to you.”

“Oh.” Why hadn't Sans realized all that before. Of course the kid who murdered the whole Underground couldn't have been his Frisk, his kind innocent Frisk. “But they haven't done anything yet. When we were in the place between, they spoke in my head about killing all humanity, but since then, nothin’.” Sans wondered if this Chara couldn't control monster souls like they had controlled Frisk. Wouldn't that be nice? It would solve all of their problems.

“Hmm, Chara is pretty smart. Maybe they are planning something? I dunno.” Frisk pushed their head against Sans’ chest again. “I'm so worried. I tried to save everyone. I thought I could just lock myself away there forever, and then everyone could be happy. But now…”

“Frisk, hon, you are my happiness. You know that right?” Sans was running his fingers through their hair. It was so soft.

“Yeah. Is that why you wanted to die?” Frisk’s voice was suddenly much higher pitched, as if they were about to cry.

“I didn't want to die, trust me. I had to shatter my soul to get to the place between. I couldn't really explain that to Papyrus.” 

“Oh, I was wondering how you did that.” Frisk was running their hand along the back of Sans’ neck now. It sent chills down his spine.

“Heh, I didn't mean for him to see. I think I upset him a skele-ton.” Sans tried to joke to lighten the mood a bit, and to calm his rapidly beating soul. The more Frisk touched him, the more nervous he was becoming, even if it felt so pleasant.

Frisk gave a bit of a snort. “Sans!” 

Sans chuckled as well. He moved his hand to their side, and ran his boney fingers up and down. Humans were so soft and cuddly. Sans wished he could stay like this forever. “So, uh kid, about what you said yesterday.” Sans said changing topics. “Do you still mean that? Liking me that is.”

Frisk didn't move for a few moments, just long enough for Sans to worry that they had changed their mind. He was about to reassure them that it was okay if they didn't, but they spoke quietly. “I think I like you even more now.”

Sans was glad they couldn't see his face, he was blushing so fiercely. He nuzzled his face against their hair, wishing he could kiss them. Instead he gathered up his magic, sending it through the top of their head, in a way he knew felt good. They gave a small shudder in his arms. He didn't think he could smile any bigger. He didn't give himself any time to think about how unworthy he was of Frisk and responded. “I'm sorry I didn't say this before, but I like you too.”

Frisk had buried their face in his chest, but he still heard them let out a small “Yay!” He couldn't help but to chuckle. They were so amazing. And they liked him. How could this get any better?

But somehow it did. “Sans, can you spend the night with me?” Frisk said so quietly into his chest he could hardly hear them. 

He couldn't believe it. “Me? Spend the night?” Frisk didn't say anything, but he could see them nodding. “How could I say no?”

Frisk untangled themself from his arms. They smiled at him, of course tilting their head to the side. “Yes!” They looked excited. “Let's lay down then. I'm still feeling tired. Today was like a rollercoaster.” Frisk made a wave motion with their arm. “My emotions have been all over the place.”

Frisk crawled under the covers. Sans felt doubtful for a moment. Was this really okay? He hoped so. He wanted this to happen so much. To sleep next to Frisk and wake up to their smile. He wanted more than that too, but those things could wait. For now he joined them under the comforter. Frisk faced towards him, smiling. “Night Sans.”

Sans gave a small yawn before stretching out his arm, wrapping it around their waist pulling them closer to him. They gave a small giggle. Sans put his forehead against their's before saying. “Night.”

He closed his eyes, his hand still on the small of their back. They were so warm. He doubted he could sleep, but as his imagination filled up with thoughts of getting to do this every night, he eventually felt at ease. He slipped into a peaceful slumber.


	8. Interlude: While He Sleeps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Sans' sleeps peacefully, his friends aren't able to do the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a short chapter to tide you guys over while I finish editing the next real chapter. Everything has been from Sans' point of view so far, so let's see how our other characters are handling things.

Papyrus and Mettaton lay in their bed, covered by a blanket patterned with flames. That particular design choice had been made by Papyrus, Mettaton could hardly say no when Papyrus got one of his whims. Not that he would want to. That's part of why he loved Papyrus so much, he never really lost his childlike wonder of the world. They currently had their legs tangled up together. Mettaton had his head propped up on one arm, while his other was on his husband's shoulder. Papyrus wasn't crying anymore, but he was still speaking much more quietly than his normal roar. He was currently recounting the days events for Mettaton.

“It was awful, I could hear him just screaming and screaming. I burst into his apartment, I thought he was being attacked. But he wasn't! He had a knife in his hands, he was going to stab himself. I was so scared. I started calling his name, but he didn't even seem to hear me. I put my hand on his shoulder, and he just stopped. ” Papyrus said. He left out the part where he had seen Sans stab himself, and then his body just utterly vanish. No dust, it was just gone. That hadn't happened after all, right? “He wasn't screaming anymore. He dropped the knife. And, wowie...uh..” Papyrus paused, unsure of how to tell Mettaton about the next part. “His soul, it was red.”

“What?” Mettaton knew all too well what red souls meant. Determination. But why would Sans’ soul be red? Mettaton frowned. “Well what happened then?”

“He avoided my questions. He wouldn't tell me what was wrong. Then he teleported us to where Frisk was. It was so strange. I don't understand any of it. I don't know how to help him.” Papyrus seemed to be at a loss for words, and knowing him, that didn't happen very often. Mettaton was quiet too, thinking of reasons why Sans was acting so strangely. He didn't know and he didn't like it. He'd have to talk to Alphys about that red soul.

“Darling.” Mettaton brushed his free hand against the side of Papyrus’s face. “We need to get some sleep now, right? If you are exhausted you won't be able to help anyone.”

Papyrus nodded, his eyes closing slowly. “I can go make him pancakes tomorrow…” He muttered before drifting off. Mettaton, however, took much longer to fall asleep.

…

Toriel couldn't sleep. She made herself a cup of tea. She sat at her kitchen table, holding the mug in her hands, letting it warm them up. It felt nice, like when she used her fire magic. She considered getting out one of her books to read, but she doubted she could concentrate right now.

She was trying to be a good parent, not to overbearing or overprotective. She still was worried, even if she didn't show it on the surface. Frisk had been acting so differently lately. They had extreme mood swings, going from smiling and cheerful to an angry mess in a matter of seconds. Toriel let some terrible thoughts run through her head. Was someone harming her child, and Frisk was too scared to say something? Were they drinking? Doing drugs? They never talked about their past, what if they had been abused? And now they were suffering from PTSD? It could be any number of things.

Toriel wanted to talk with Frisk about it more, but when she tried in the past, Frisk had clammed up, and withdrawn. That's when their nightmares had gotten worse. Toriel hated when that happened, Frisk looked like a zombie those days. Sans seemed to help though, where Toriel was unable to. That made her feel terrible, but she was glad Frisk had someone to talk to.

Sans though. He was hiding something. He knew more about Frisk’s little disappearance than he was letting on. She didn't like that he was keeping secrets. Or that Frisk was keeping secrets either. Toriel didn't want to push them too much on it. She gave a deep sigh, and took a sip of her tea. 

…

 

It was so lonely.

Frisk looked at Sans, his eyes closed and his breathing light. He looked so peaceful. Like he had been carrying a heavy weight that had been suddenly lifted. Like all his worries had vanished. It was a wonderful look, Frisk had never seen him look like that before. Still, they felt lonely.

Chara was gone.

Well not gone, but gone from their head. Frisk had always dreamed of this day, when Chara would be gone. But now that it had actually come, Frisk felt a large hole in their soul. Chara loved to narrate everything they saw, in the most sarcastic manner. They described the scents of things, something that Frisk hardly noticed on their own. Of course sometimes they said awful things, but that wasn't always the case. 

Frisk had hoped that as Chara had seen more and more of the good side of humanity, they would stop their stupid quest to destroy it. That hadn't been the case. It made Frisk’s heart sink a bit to think of what might’ve happened to them before they fell into the Underground that gave them such a terrible outlook on life. 

Frisk sighed quietly, trying to not disturb Sans. They were so worried. Would Sans be able to control Chara? Would he be able to show them the good of the world? Frisk didn't know, but they wanted to have hope.

…

Chara laughed.


	9. Days We Never Want To End

Sans woke up with a start when he heard a loud gasping noise. His eyes flew open, his blurry vision currently trained upon Frisk, who was staring over him towards the doorway. He ripped his gaze away from them and looked over towards their door, and standing there was Toriel, with her mouth wide open. “Oh my. I did not mean to interrupt.” She quickly turned around, closing the door behind her.

“Oh gosh.” Frisk got up from under the covers and crawled over Sans. “Mom! It's not what it looks like!” Frisk scrambled for the door. 

Sans gave a small chuckle. He could hear their voices in the hallway. “You are an adult now, you can have your boyfriend over if you want.” Sans grinned at the thought of being called their boyfriend. “Maybe let me know next time? Or lock the door.”

“Mooooooom. We weren't even doing anything...”

Their voices got further away. Sans thought about going after them, but first he took a look at his phone. He really should stop sleeping with it in his pocket, he'd end up cracking the screen. It was already past seven in the morning. He didn't normally get up this early, but today he felt awake and refreshed, even with the rather sudden awakening. He had a couple of messages from Papyrus. He opened them up.

BROTHER I WANTED TO KNOW HOW YOU ARE DOING.  
5:45am

ARE YOU AWAKE? PROBABLY NOT YOU LAZY BONES! THE GREAT PAPYRUS ALWAYS WAKES UP EARLY.  
6:12am

I AM COMING OVER TO MAKE YOU BREAKFAST. YOU NEED A GOOD MEAL TO START YOUR DAY.  
6:23am

WHERE ARE YOU?  
7:03am

Sans chuckled and sent him a reply.

sorry bro i was at frisks house ill be home in a few  
7:28am

OKAY, HURRY THOUGH, I MADE PANCAKES!   
7:28am

Sans got out of bed and headed downstairs. As much as he wanted to spend the morning with Frisk, he had to make sure Papyrus was fine first. After all the stress of yesterday it was the least he could do.

Sans felt like skipping down the hallway, but he restrained himself. He couldn't remember ever having this much energy when he woke up before. Downstairs he could hear Frisk and Toriel in the kitchen, as well as the scent of bacon wafting through the air. Sans’ stomach growled at him.

“Yo guys.” Sans said once he entered, “I gotta get out of here, Papyrus was looking for me…”

He barely got his sentence out before Frisk ran up to him, throwing their arms around his neck. “Sans! You can't go! Mom is teasing me! She keeps making skeleton jokes!.”

“You aren't fibula-ing?” Sans said, his laughter just barely escaping from his throat.

Frisk backed off, a mock look of betrayal on their face. “No Sans! Not you too!”

“Heh. I can't help it if we are so humerus.” Sans winked.

“See Frisk, Sans is calm about me catching you two in bed.” Toriel turned away from the stove where she was frying some bacon and eggs in a pan. “You could say, nothing gets under his skin.”

“Nooooooooo.” Frisk let out a moan. “You have goat to be kidding me!”

The three of them all started laughing, a silly carefree moment in time. It couldn't last forever though. “We will see you later Sans.” Toriel said, after getting her laughter under control, and turning back to her cooking.

“Bye hon.” Sans moved towards Frisk, giving them a brief hug, and pressing one of his skeleton kisses to their forehead. Frisk giggled a bit.

“Bye Sans.”

Sans was back in his apartment. It was clean now? The broken coffee table and glass were gone, the other things he had scattered were put back in place. Papyrus was playing with his phone at Sans’ small kitchen table, a huge pile of pancakes in front of him.

“SANS!” Papyrus’s yelled upon seeing his brother again. “GOOD THING YOU ARE BACK BEFORE THE PANCAKES GOT COLD!”

“Uh, Bro, maybe you should keep it down. Not everyone shares your enthusiasm this early in the morning.” As Sans made his way over to the table he wondered if any of his neighbors had complained to the landlord about all the ruckus yesterday. Well he'd deal with that later. 

“Well this is a whole apartment of lazy bones then!” Papyrus said defiantly, but he still kept his voice down.

Sans sat at the table, pulling over the stack of pancakes, and putting some on his plate. He drizzled some maple syrup over the top, watching it smother his pancakes in sweet golden goodness. Maybe just a little more would be good. Hmm, he probably had more syrup than pancakes now. But it was just so good!

“SANS.” Papyrus yelled snapping Sans out of his syrupy haze.

“Hmmm?” 

“I asked if you have work this afternoon? We are planning a picnic at MTT park.” 

Sans pondered back. He could hardly recall what day it was anymore. He glanced at the calendar he kept on his fridge. It was currently pinned to the completely wrong month. “Uhhh.” Sans shoveled a mouthful of his mostly syrup pancakes in his mouth. He was pretty sure it was Thursday, so that meant he had his hot dog stand job, but not until evening. “I'm free until six.”

“Good! We shall all celebrate with the most jovial of picnics, and I, the great Papyrus, shall make a most excellent meal for us to partake in.” Papyrus stood suddenly, striking a heroic pose.

“Hey bro? What kinda ant could destroy a picnic table?”

“Well I would think that termites would be more likely to…”

“A gi-ant!” Sans said, chuckling.

“SANS! Must you plague my life with puns!” Papyrus stomped his feet, probably waking Sans’ downstairs neighbors, but Sans couldn't help but to laugh at Papyrus’s antics. Heh, ant-ics.

Papyrus sat back down, pulling some pancakes onto his plate with a fork. He didn't even bother with any syrup. “Soooo,” Papyrus said, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “You spent the night at Frisk’s? Does this mean you are dating now?”

Sans felt his face grow warm. “I guess so.” He gave a small smile. He hadn't discussed it with Frisk yet, but Toriel had called him their boyfriend and they hadn't denied it.

“Well, remember I dated them first! I told them I'd help them find a partner worthy of them, I think that if they can't have me, then my very cool brother will do.” Papyrus shoved almost an entire pancake into his mouth somehow. Sans gave a nervous laugh. He certainly hoped he was worthy of Frisk.

After an enjoyable morning breakfast, Papyrus took his leave, but not before briefly gushing about his daughter. Apparently she was one of the smartest kids in her class, so talented, and great, just like her fathers. Sans enjoyed listening, he could pretend the world was fine for awhile, that everything was normal. Papyrus raced out the door with a wave of his hand, leaving Sans alone.

Sans was glad Papyrus hadn't questioned him more about the events of yesterday, even more glad that he wasn't crying. It seemed that Papyrus was more than willing to let the past go for now. Sans rinsed his plate off in the sink, having to scrub a bit at some of the syrup that had stuck. Now Sans had the whole morning off to himself, but what to do?

Chara? He thought loudly to himself, trying to summon the demon that had taken residence in his soul.

There was no response.

“Chara?” He tried out loud. Nothing. It seemed either Chara couldn't speak, or was being the world’s biggest brat giving him the silent treatment. Sans couldn't decide what was worse.

Eventually the morning came and went, and Sans made his way to the park. He actually walked there for once in his life. It was a day in spring, the sun rays beaming against his skull, bathing him in warmth. He enjoyed his walk, looking up at the trees evenly spaced on the sidewalk, each blooming white with flowers. With every breeze, a few petals would come loose, and came fluttering down. At his feet, some of the petals danced as he walked. 

Ahead of him, near the city hall about a block from the park, Sans heard a soft melody. He saw a gathering of monsters ahead of him, crowded around someone. As he got closer, he recognized the voice. It was Shyren. She was putting on an impromptu performance. Her voice was soft and light as she sang out a beautiful tune. Sans couldn't help but to stop for awhile, his foot tapping in beat with her song. What a wonderful day.

When the song ended and the crowd dispersed, Napstablook somehow seemed to materialize next to Sans. “Oh hi.” He said quietly.

“Hey Napsta! Are you and Shyren headed to the picnic too?” Sans said with a grin. The two of them were in a band with Mettaton after all.

“Yeah. Shyren got distracted and started singing. I didn't want to get in the way.” Napstablook started sinking down, right down into the sidewalk. 

“Heh, well you know how she likes to sing. C’mon, let's get going or we'll be late.” 

The three unlikely companions made it to the park just in time. In the middle of the lush field of green, there was a wooden picnic table overflowing with food. Nearby, Papyrus stood manning a grill, cooking up hot dogs and hamburgers, wearing an apron that said “Hot Stuff Coming Through.” Sans chuckled to himself.

“Sans!” Frisk ran over to him, throwing their arms around his neck. “I'm so glad you could make it!” They grabbed his hand, leading him over to table. Toriel was sitting closest to Papyrus, perhaps to supervise him in case of accidental fires. Mettaton was sitting next to her, Alphys at his side. They looked like they were in deep conversation about something, but they stopped speaking when Sans approached the table. They both cast a glare his way before looking away. Mettaton seemed to be more interested in watching Arial now as she played with some of the guard dogs. Alphys was now looking towards her wife, who was having a contest against herself it seemed. A boulder lifting contest. Sans could hear Undyne laughing as she hoisted up ever larger rocks. It seemed like it would be a fun afternoon.

After snacking down on a hot dog that was more ketchup than anything else, Sans sat off to the side under the shade of a tree watching Papyrus, Frisk, Arial, and Undyne play some Frisbee. Papyrus for some reason kept catching the Frisbee in his mouth. Sans laughed. 

It wasn't long after when Sans was approached by Mettaton and Alphys. Mettaton had his arms crossed again, Alphys hid slightly behind him, her tail curled around her body. She looked from Mettaton’s sour face to Sans nervously. “U-u-uh, Sans? We, uh, have a question for you?”

Sans looked at the two of them, feeling a bit sweaty already. What could this be about? “Okay?”

“Why is your soul red? That's not possible. You are a monster. With that much determination you should be dead.” Mettaton asked for Alphys, who seemed too nervous to even speak. Sans tried to shrug as nonchalantly as possible. “Don't shrug at me. Alphys and I came up with a theory. Maybe if your LV was high enough you could have that much determination. So, darling, how much LOVE do you have?”

Sans looked at Mettaton with an angry grin. Mettaton just wouldn't trust him ever, would he? “You know damn well it's one.” Sans gritted his teeth together.

“Then how exactly did you get so much determination then? What have you been doing?” Mettaton shouted as he grabbed the front of Sans hoodie, lifting him up to his feet.

Everyone in the park was watching them now, due to the level of Mettaton's voice. Sans felt anger, but slightly embarrassed by all the onlookers. How could he even explain? “You know Mettaton, you are just like school on Sunday.”

“What?” Mettaton gave him a bemused expression, but let Sans’ hoodie go.

“You got no class.” Sans said with a dark chuckle. His anger was overwhelming him now. Mettaton always treated him like this, like he was always doing something wrong. Sans was tired of it. “But hey, I can teach you a lesson.”

Sans didn't even mean to do it. He raised his hand into the air. He didn't even feel like he was the one doing it. He felt like he was losing control. He summoned one of his Gaster blasters. His smile was menacing and wild now.

“W-w-what are you doing?” Alphys said, backing away from Sans.

“Hmph. Don't worry dear. He's too much of a coward to do anything.” Mettaton said confidently his eyes piercing into Sans.

“You think I'm a coward?” Sans said in a voice that was both his and not his. It was like he was a puppet being pulled by strings he couldn't even see. What he could see though, well that was something else entirely. There was a strange red glow reflecting off Mettaton's metal body now. Was that the light from his eye? Was it glowing red now?

Sans wanted this to stop. He couldn't stop. There was the sound of his blaster charging up. Mettaton's expression changed from smug to terror. He started to run away, in what seemed like slow motion. But it was too late.

There was a red beam of light.

Mettaton was still standing there.

But Alphys?

She stood in front of Mettaton. Now holding her arm tightly against her chest. She was breathing heavily. Her body started to fade away, turning into dust. She had the beginnings of tears in her eyes, fogging up her glasses. With the last of her strength, she turned around towards Mettaton and said “I-i-i’m happy you are okay.”

Then there was nothing but dust.

Sans stood still.

He felt like his body was his own again. And everything hurt. He fell to his knees, unable to even process what had just happened. But then, completely unbidden, peals of laughter started to fall from his mouth.

“YOU PUNK!” Undyne screamed. She was grimacing, her fins quivering on the side of her face, her eye glistening with the start of tears, her sharp teeth showing through her frown. She summoned a spear to her side, and with a scream of anguish threw it at Sans.

He could have dodged it easily. He could have teleported away. He didn't though. He let the spear hit him. He felt himself fading away. He died all while still laughing.

Everything went black.

He was back in the place between.


	10. Days That Crash Down Upon Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit shorter of a chapter but oh well. Also some minor swearing, but nothing worse than what's in the game.

With a shuttering breath, Sans placed his hand against his ribcage. He could almost still feel the spear that had so painfully pierced him. It wasn't still there of course. He lowered his head, placing it in his hands and gave a deep sigh. He had messed up. He wasn't even sure how he had messed up, but Chara had gained control of his body and killed Alphys. So yeah, somehow he had really messed up. Everything.

Sans looked around the inky blackness that encompassed the place between. “Chara?” He called out. Of course there was no answer. Why would they start answering now? “Chara!” Sans all but growled in his now growing anger. What the hell was that brat doing?

Sans swore he heard laughing. He swung his body around 180° trying to find the source. Instead behind him he saw that wretched reset button. He didn't even want to press it. At least not yet. He had a lot to think about. 

Of course the longer he waited to press it, the more the real world would go on without him. Sans could only imagine what was going on there right now. Probably a lot of crying, at least from his brother. Mettaton and Undyne were probably glad he was dead. He could only imagine what foul things everyone else was thinking about him. He had died all while gleefully laughing. That probably had been super creepy to watch. And Frisk. They were probably just hoping he'd reset soon. Or maybe not. Maybe Frisk hated him for not being able to control Chara. He had become their puppet so easily. He really hated himself for that.

There was another question plaguing his mind at the moment. Would Frisk even remember the resets now that Chara lived in his soul instead? Would it be better for them if they didn't? Sans took a seat on the ground. What if they remembered but despised him now? Or what if they didn't remember and everything they had done together in the past day was gone forever? Both options seemed terrible to Sans, but honestly he wished more for the latter.

Sans knew when he reset again he'd be back in his apartment with Papyrus. He'd have to go through all that turmoil again. Unless he could think up a plan of what to tell his brother so he wouldn't be so hurt this time.

Sans sat for awhile pondering, his eyes never leaving the reset button. He stood suddenly, clenching his fists so tightly there was an audible clanking of bones. He had a plan now. He couldn't give up yet. Sure he had made one error, but that wouldn't be the end of the world. This time, Sans would do everything right. He still had hope. He lifted his hand and slammed it down on the reset button.

Sans was back in his apartment. He had to act fast. He pushed his crimson soul back into his body and with the knife he cut one of the strings off his hoodie. He didn't have a lot to work with here, he just hoped Papyrus would believe his story.

“Sans? What are you doing?” Papyrus has his hand on Sans’ shoulder, his voice full of concern.

Sans took a moment to compose himself before turning around. He put on his brightest smile and turned on the spot. “Oh hey bro. Sorry did I scare you? I got this string caught in one of my vertebrae. You could say... it was a real pain in the neck.” Sans gave a carefree chuckle.

There was a moment of silence as Papyrus looked Sans up and down. “OH MY GOD SANS. Really? You scared me half to death and all you can do is make a terrible joke?” Papyrus put a hand to his skull and sighed. “Why did you leave so suddenly anyway? You are worrying me brother.”

“Uh, I had an idea about where to find Frisk.” Sans put the knife and string on his kitchen counter. He didn't want Papyrus to come with him this time. He wanted to talk to Frisk alone. “I'm gonna get back to looking for them.” Sans said with a bit of a shrug.

“Well as glad as I am you're not lazing about anymore, be careful. And answer my text messages! Remember Sans, the Great Papyrus is always here if you need to talk.” Papyrus gave his signature laugh before heading towards the door. He paused, his hand on the handle as he looked back at Sans. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but then shut it again.

“Anything wrong?” Sans asked after a few seconds.

“It's nothing. I feel like I had something I wanted to say, but then I forgot.” Papyrus had a quizzical look in his eyes. “OH WELL. I'm going to help search for Frisk too. I bet I find them first!” Papyrus was out the door, nyeh-heh-hehing down the hallway.

Sans took in a gulp of air. He hadn't even realized that he had been holding his breath that whole time. Everything had gone better than he had hoped. Papyrus didn't think he wanted to kill himself, he wasn't crying, and soon Frisk would be back again. Everything would be normal again, and this time, happier. “Screw you Chara.” Sans whispered as he teleported to the ruins.

There was a small rustling of leaves as Sans appeared. He swore he saw one of the golden flowers move, but that couldn't be, right? Sans sighed. He'd worry about that later. Right now there was something far more important.

He bent down next to Frisk, and brushed their hair out of their face. They looked so peaceful in their sleep, unaware of the world around them. Sans almost didn't want to wake them up, but he knew he had to, and gently shook their arm.

Frisk’s eyes fluttered open and they looked at Sans for a quiet moment. Then all at once they sat up and threw their arms around his shoulders, squeezing him tightly. “Are you okay?” Frisk asked, their voice high and tense.

So, it seemed they did remember after all. Sans sighed and patted Frisk's back. “Hon, shouldn't I be asking you that?” 

Frisk pulled away from Sans and tilted their head, giving a small smile. “I'm fine.” They looked Sans over, as if searching for something. A scowl creased into their features. Sans felt his soul drop in his chest. Was Frisk really mad at him now? He wouldn't blame them…

Frisk stood up, looking down at Sans still on the ground. Sans couldn't meet their eyes anymore. He flinched when Frisk suddenly started yelling in a stern tone. “CHARA! That was so, so, so, terrible! I can't believe you made Sans do that!” Frisk put their hand under Sans chin, lifting his head. “I'm not mad at you Sans. Chara is the one being an ass! Are they saying anything to you?”

“They haven't said a thing to me. Well ‘cept for laughing.” Sans admitted. He was glad that Frisk wasn't mad at him, but he wasn't sure he deserved such mercy. A deep part of him still felt guilty over everything that had happened. Had Frisk felt like this too?

“Chara! Stop playing games. I know you better than anyone else. If you think you can break Sans, or use him like this, you are wrong. He's stronger than you know.” Frisk looked so determined. They were the strong one, the one who had struggled so much over the years. Sans was worthless, he couldn't be that strong. He hung his head in shame.

Then as if he was being pulled by puppet strings again, his head was back up. And he was standing up. He put his hand on Frisk's arm, all while wearing a demented grin on his face. Oh no. “Frisk, Sans is so much weaker than you give him credit for. I know all his thoughts now. I even know how he truly feels about you.” The voice that came out was his own, but it was not him speaking. Sans felt like screaming but he couldn't. What was Chara going to say?

“Chara!” Frisk growled, placing both their hands on Sans shoulders, as if to prevent him from moving or teleporting. “You have to stop this.”

Sans could feel himself laughing again. “We've only just begun to play! I wonder who I should murder next?”

Sans hated this. He couldn't let Chara do this. They might hurt Frisk! He somehow wretched control back, and slumped over into Frisk’s arms. The two of them stood there for a long moment, bathed in the warm, yet distant sunlight from the surface. Frisk kept uttering small phrases of reassurance to Sans, but it was of little comfort.

Sans was scared.


	11. A Dream of Something Else

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey friends! I changed the tags. Also, I changed some of the earlier chapter titles so they match the later ones. ALSO if you want go check out the first chapter I drew a title image! If you guys like it, maybe I'll do some more art for chapters in the future!

Sans was laying down on his couch, his legs thrown over one armrest while his rested on the cushions. It wasn't the most comfortable of positions, but the thought of getting up didn't really appeal to him at the moment, so there he stayed. He summoned a bone with his magic. It was still the normal blue color it had always been. He held it in the air above his head, obstructing his view of the ceiling, as he admired the azure glow. Blue had always been one of his favorite colors, after all. 

The past day had been so hectic. He had brought Frisk back home, repeating the events from the last timeline. It wasn't exactly the same. He had far less blame placed upon him by the others, even Mettaton had seemed grateful for him bringing back Frisk. Sans hated that he was using his own knowledge of past timelines to change the future. This wasn't how time was supposed to work. Time was a line, not a looping circle. Yet for most of his life, Sans kept getting trapped in these loops of time, and all he wanted was for it to stop. He was always searching for the anomalies. Of course, right now he was the anomaly. That gave him a sickening feeling. He was becoming the very thing he hated the most, as if he didn't already hate himself enough as it was. The universe had to keep throwing things at him to make him hate himself more.

Sans remembered the first time loop he had gotten stuck in. It was after the Doctor had long since vanished, or perhaps been written out of existence was a better term for it. Alphys had taken over being the Royal Scientist. That stupid flower his brother was so fond of kept playing with time, befriending everyone and then killing everyone. Well he had never been able to kill Sans. Eventually the flower had gotten bored and Frisk had taken over soon after that. Loops upon loops of time entwining and mixing within his memories. The fact that he alone could remember, that he alone was cursed with all this determination, it was all that man’s fault, the former Royal Scientist.

Of course he wasn't alone this time. Frisk was by his side now. Sans dismissed the bone he was hovering in the air and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He considered texting Frisk to ask if he could spend the night, just like in the last timeline. Then a horrible thought struck Sans like a bolt of lightning. What if Chara possessed him while he was asleep and hurt Frisk? Sans didn't think he could live with himself if that happened. He couldn't control them yet, like Frisk seemed to be able to do. He couldn't be alone with Frisk until he could. He was too much of a danger. Unlike Frisk, he didn't have to go and find a weapon, he was the weapon. He was beginning to see why Chara had wanted his soul so badly. And now he felt more lonely than he could ever recall.

Maybe it was best if Sans didn't see anyone until he figured out how to keep Chara at bay. He couldn't risk hurting his friends and family. He didn't want to reset ever again. 

“Chara,” Sans called out softly, yet the word still seemed to echo around his small apartment. “You better talk to me pal, or I'm gonna go hide somewhere. That's not what you want, is it?” There was no answer in the silence that followed. What did Chara want anyway? They said they wanted to destroy humanity, yet they seemed content to torture and laugh at Sans. Stupid brat.

Sans sat up, swinging his legs back down onto the floor. “I don't know what game you are playing,” Sans' deep voice muttered. “But it ends here. There will be no more resets. Whatever you are planning won't work. If I were you, I'd just give up now.”

Sans stood up, taking a step forward. 

He was on the top of Mt Ebott. The warm rays of the setting sun shone from behind him, casting a long shadow in front of him. Sans kicked at a pebble in front of him with one foot, he watched as it rolled a few feet forward on the makeshift dirt road before coming to a stop. Sans took a seat near the edge of the cliff, and looked wistfully up at the darkening sky. He took in a deep breath, and even from this far away, he swore he caught the scent of the yellow flowers that still bloomed in the throne room.

Before he knew it he had closed his eyes and fallen asleep right there. It wasn't the first time he had fallen asleep in a potentially dangerous situation. He kinda had a habit of doing that. After the stress of a long day, a day he had already lived through once, he didn't have the energy to stay awake another moment. So of course he didn't feel the buzzing of his phone in his pocket. Or much later, the crunching of dirt as someone approached him from behind.

Instead Sans was lost in his dreams. He was in a long hallway, the walls a muted washed out gray, as if all the color had been sucked out of them. In fact everything was a similar shade of gray. Sans made his way down the hall, only to find that the path branched off to the left and right. Down each branch, he could see more pathways diverging. It seemed he was in a maze. 

He placed his right hand upon the wall. It was smooth and slightly cold. He started moving forward, never taking his hand from the wall. If there was one thing he had learned from Papyrus, it was puzzle solving skills. He knew as long as he stayed on this same path, never removing his hand, he couldn't get lost, and eventually he'd find the exit. Unfortunately he had no idea how large this maze was so he didn't know how long it would take. Did it even have an exit?

One of the paths seemed to open up into a larger room. Sans froze in place when he entered, his hand still upon the wall but his legs no longer seemed to work. In the center of the room Frisk was laying on the floor. They had that red scarf on their neck, which stood out against the lack of color anywhere else. That and beneath them was a pool of red. Blood. A bone was sticking out of their chest. Sans wanted to run to them, but he couldn't. There was someone else in the room. It was him?

The other Sans spotted him and started laughing. “You killed them.” He said, his words painted with mirth. “You dirty murderer.”

“No…” Sans could feel his own grin starting to fade away. He would never hurt Frisk. Never.

The other Sans’ eye burst into bright red as he started moving towards him slowly, his feet shuffling against the ground, kicking up dust. “You killed everyone.”

A shocking realization came to Sans as he saw the other Sans walking. That gray color was familiar. He moved his hand from the wall and stared at it. It was covered in the gray as well. It was...dust? 

“Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.” The other Sans was only a few inches away now. Sans felt sick. Everything was covered in the dust of dead monsters. Sans had killed everyone. His legs gave out from underneath him and he fell to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust as he did so. He looked up at the other Sans who had summoned a blaster and was pointing it straight at Sans head. It was glowing scarlet. Sans heard it charge up, and then….

“We all fall down.”

Sans awoke with a start. The only thing keeping him from screaming was the now apparent presence to his side.


	12. Wishing Never Made A Difference

The scream that had been stifled in Sans throat became a quiet word as he felt the warmth coming from his right side. “Frisk?”

Sleeping soundly against his side was the small form of Frisk. They had their eyes closed and a look of peace upon their face. They were wearing a warm looking sweater and their red scarf that matched Papyrus’s and Arial’s. Sans could see a bit of their breath in the cold spring air as they breathed slowly. Sans looked around him. He was still at the top of Mt Ebott, only it was now nighttime. How had Frisk gotten up here? Sans heard the sounds of footsteps behind him. He turned his head slightly so he could see what the noise was.

“Sans, you silly bones, how could you decide to take a nap up here?” Papyrus whispered as he knelt down next to Sans.

Sans gave a shrug. He was known for taking rather sudden naps in far stranger places, so him being here wasn't that odd. “Dunno. Just nap-pened.” Sans give a quiet chuckle.

“Normally I would yell at such a terrible pun but I don't want to wake the human.” Papyrus pointed at Frisk with a smile. “Seems like they do have a crush on you. Can I ask you something dear brother?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you like them too?” Papyrus elbowed Sans in the side, his grin growing ever wider.

Sans thought for a moment, looking at the sleepy face of Frisk’s so close to his own. “I do, but I dunno if I deserve them.”

Papyrus gave a sigh. He held his hand up towards the stars, as if he could grasp them. He began to speak even with his eyes still cast upwards. “Do you remember when we were still in the Underground and we'd go to make wishes in the wishing room? Everyone would always make the same wishes, to see the surface someday. It was pretty silly, wishing on rocks that most of us just assumed resembled the real night sky, although none of us had ever seen it. I have to say the real thing is far more stupendous than I could have ever imagined.”

 

 

Papyrus dropped his outstretched hand onto Sans’ shoulder, “I sometimes wished for something else. All I wanted was for you to be happy Sans. Even if I never got to see the surface, I would be okay if I got to see your real smile. And you know what, when I see you look at Frisk, I see you make a genuine smile.”

Papyrus stood up, and said far louder than he probably should have, “Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight. I wish I may, wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight!”

Sans was grateful for his brother trying so hard to cheer him up, trying so hard to make him happy. Sans just didn't know what to say to him. Anything he could think of after such an emotional speech would just fall flat. He smiled as genuinely as possible, hoping his feelings would get across somehow.

Frisk stirred at Sans’ side, lazily rubbing their eyes as they gave a small yawn. “Heh, bro, your wish star-tled someone else.”

“That was the worst pun yet!” Papyrus pretended to get mad, but he was still smiling. “I'll leave you two love birds alone for now. Don't stay up too late, Toriel will worry.” Papyrus waved as he laughed and took his leave.

Frisk seemed fully awake now. “Bye Paps!” They called out, waving back.

“Okay kiddo, how'd you know I'd be here?” Sans asked once Papyrus was out of sight.

“Oh I just had a hunch after Papyrus said he couldn't get in touch with you either. You are really bad at answering your phone!” Frisk pouted. “We kinda went on a crazy adventure together, what with all the spiders, donuts, and then wigs. Ah, but I’ll tell you about that later.” Sans gave Frisk a strange look, but didn’t question them yet. “Eventually we found you here! You were so cute sleeping I didn't want to wake you up, so we were waiting for you. Guess I was sleepy and fell asleep myself.” Frisk cracked a smile, but at the same time they shivered slightly.

Sans took off his hoodie and draped it around Frisk’s shoulders. “Sounds like you had quite a night pal. Don’t want you to catch a cold now though.” He gave them a wink.

Frisk cuddled into the hoodie. “Hey you know what this feels like?” They said mischievously.

“Hm?”

“Boyfriend material.” Frisk said, hardly able to get the words out without laughing.

Sans started laughing too. “Wow kid, that was great. What do you say we get you back home now?”

“Sounds good to me!” Frisk grabbed Sans’ hand as they both stood up. Sans took a step forward.

They were back in Frisk’s room again. Even if the events prior to this had played out differently, he had still ended up in the same place again. Timelines had a weird way of doing that. Certain events always seemed to happen. Although this time, Sans had a feeling things would be slightly different.

“Well kiddo, I best be going.” Sans said as Frisk sat down on their bed.

“What? Why?” Frisk’s eyes narrowed as they stared Sans down.

“Listen, I can’t control Chara yet. I was up on that mountain to get away from everyone until I could figure out how to make sure they don’t hurt anyone else again. I can’t risk staying here and then you getting hurt.” Sans looked down at his feet as he shuffled them awkwardly on the carpet.

“Chara wouldn’t hurt me.” Frisk said, their eyes lighting up with determination. “Plus as long as…”

Frisk stopped their words short and Sans looked up. Frisk wasn’t looking at him anymore, but slightly behind him. Sans turned around towards the door when he saw what they were looking at.

Chara?

Sans thrust his hand forward, gathering up his magic. He pulled on Chara’s soul, intending to throw them to the ground. Instead, he found himself falling to the floor with a loud thud.

“Oh my god you are SO stupid!” Chara was hovering right beside him now, laughing uproariously.

Sans didn’t have a lot of time to think of something to say back, because he heard a thundering of footsteps running towards the room.

“Frisk! Are you okay? I thought you were out with Papyrus…” Toriel opened the door forcefully then paused as she looked at Sans laying on the floor.

Sans quickly sat up, looking from Toriel to Chara to Frisk. “Uh, I can explain…”

Toriel suddenly started laughing. “Oh my, am I disturbing something?” She said coyly. “Well I will leave you two alone then.”

“Oh gosh mom no!” Frisk’s face turned red and they quickly covered their face with their hands. Toriel didn’t hear, as she had already closed the door, and was chuckling as she walked away.

Sans scratched the back of his head. So much had just happened he couldn’t even figure out where to start. Maybe it would be best to deal with the elephant in the room. Or ghost, as it were. “Chara? How are you doing that exactly?”

“What? Being a ghost? Are you really that dense? Well I guess you are since you tried to use magic on me when we HAVE THE SAME SOUL.” Chara started laughing harder. “C’mon Sans, I know you are smart, use your brain. I am a GHOST. Of course I can take form in the real world. Don’t you remember me haunting you when Frisk went missing?”

Sans did remember that now, but he hadn’t realized that Chara could make themselves visible to only certain people. Maybe there was a reason for that. He voiced his thoughts. “So you are only visible to people with high determination?”

“Bingo! I knew you weren’t a total dummy. There is no way any other monsters can see me like this. But you can! And my old soul buddy too.” Chara practically glided along the floor to Frisk’s bed, and sat down next to them. “Did you miss me?” Chara leaned in close to Frisk, who in turn scooted to the other side of the bed, crossing their arms and looking away.

Sans stood up, and now that his confusion was fading, he felt an anger rising inside him instead. “Stay away from them!” Sans teleported to the bed and made a motion to shove Chara back. His hand went straight through them.

“We’ve been over this! Ghoooooooost.” Chara snickered.

Sans sighed, but sat down on the bed between Chara and Frisk. “What are you doing here then, pal?” Sans stressed the last word with as much sarcasm as he could muster.

“Oh yeah, I wanted to say something to Frisk.” Chara looked around Sans towards Frisk. “Do you really think that I wouldn’t hurt you? Are you still that naive? I know exactly how you think. That I can still be saved, that I still have some good left in me.” Chara paused, the smile on their face growing demonic. “You are dead wrong.”

“You are being a real jerk.” Frisk kept looking away from them, as if the wall on the other side of the room as far more interesting. “There is good in everyone.”

“Oh just like how you think there is good in Sans despite him breaking his promise to Toriel and KILLING you hundreds of times.” Chara’s voice was focused and strong.

Frisk whipped their head around, their eyes looking a bit misty. “You mean killing YOU.”

“He didn’t know that at the time. He thought he was killing you. And yet you still think he has some good in him? And you want to date your murderer?”

“Uh.” Sans had been silent for the whole exchange. “Frisk, do you think I’m bad?”

“What? Sans, no. Don’t listen to Chara, that’s just what they do. They try to make you think bad thoughts. But I know they don’t really mean it. They are just hurt deep inside. If we can help them see the good of the world then…”

“Are you defending them?” Sans interrupted. “The kid that killed all my friends and family, and made me go through hundreds of hellish time loops, and is now making me live it all over again! What good could they possibly have?”

Frisk didn’t speak, but their lips get tight as if they were desperately biting back words. Instead, Chara began to speak. “Oh Sans, we are so much more alike than you’d ever like to admit.”

“No, we aren’t.” Sans eyes went black, sending the room into a deep chill. “I a m n o t h i n g l i k e y o u.”

“Stop fighting!” Frisk rubbed their eyes before pointing at the two others in the room. “Chara stop torturing Sans. Sans, listen to me, we have to help Chara.”

Sans swung his legs over, placing his feet onto the floor. “I’ll never help that demon.”

He took a step forward, taking a shortcut back to his apartment. His soul gave a heavy thud in his chest as he heard a muffled sob from Frisk before he vanished.

Everything was so messed up now.


	13. Interlude 2: Papyrus and Frisk's Excellent Adventure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place prior to the previous chapter, and is told from Frisk's point of view! Just something to tide you guys over while I work on the next real chapter. Mostly just silly fluff stuff, but some small plot stuff too, since we so rarely get to see anything except for Sans' point of view. (Also written in first person for some reason???)

My hands rested on the keys of my laptop, although they currently weren’t moving. I had a blank document open, the white of the page glaring back at me as if daring me to type something into it. I give a sigh and run a hand through my hair. I roll my neck, trying to loosen myself up. I just had to start typing, it’s not like it would be hard. I had already done this once before anyway. I was supposed to be writing an essay for my economics class about the impact of the freedom of monsters on the world’s economy. Not really the most exciting subject in the world. It really didn’t help that in the last timeline I had written it already. You would think that would make typing it a second time easier, but nope! Just super tedious, really.

My phone next to the laptop starts buzzing at me. I swipe past the unlock screen, an adorable candid picture of Papyrus carrying Sans, and see I have a new text message from the younger brother. Shoot, I was hoping Sans had finally gotten back to me. I open the text to read it.

HUMAN! HAVE YOU SEEN SANS AROUND ANYWHERE? I CAN’T GET AHOLD OF HIM  
7:56pm

Nope, I haven’t seen him since he left the house earlier.  
7:56pm

Oh man, poor Sans. He had so much to deal with lately, what with Chara taking over his soul and all. I couldn’t help but to feel bad. I had dealt with Chara for so many years now, so I knew how bad they could get at times. My mind wandered back to a day a few weeks ago…

…

“Chara! What the actual hell!” I slammed my door to my room shut and threw my bag on the ground. I locked the door behind me and stomped over to my bed and threw myself upon it. 

“Frisk? Are you okay?” I could hear Mom’s muffled voice from behind the door.

“Yeah, I just had a bad day. I’m gonna take a nap okay?”

“Yes, of course my child. I’ll make you some pie for later, okay?” I heard her feet shuffling away. I felt so bad. I wished I could tell her about Chara, but Chara would never allow that. I know, I had tried it before and it had ended so, so badly.

“Chara, for real, what were you thinking?” I whispered into my pillow, not wanting to yell more and get mom even more worried.

I could feel Chara sit down on the edge of my bed, despite that being impossible since they are a ghost and have no actual form. Chara doesn’t seem much for following the “rules” of being a ghost anyway. I sit up, trying to not even look their way.

“What? You mean flirting with Grace? I thought that was what you wanted.” Chara put a hand up to their mouth in mock surprise. “You mean I shouldn’t have done that?”

“No! You know I like Sans. I don’t want to flirt with anyone else! All you want to do is embarrass me.” I bite my lip, trying not to yell.

“Well you never do what I want.” Chara gave a smug grin.

“Well of course not. You want to destroy all of humanity. Why can’t I just get through to you Chara? Why can’t I help you see how great people actually are? I just want you to be happy.” I cast my eyes on them, hoping against hope that maybe this time they’ll see reason, that this time they’ll give up on trying to hurt everyone. 

“Oh my god Frisk! It’s always the same song and dance with you. What is with you and your god complex. You think you have to go and save everyone. That everyone has some good in them! I can tell you that all humans have wicked wicked souls. Someday you will see my side of things.” Chara vanished before I could say another word to them, but I could still hear their voice echoing in my head. “In any case, I personally think Grace is far cuter than Sans.”

“Ugh whatever.” I fall backwards back onto my bed, covering my face with my arm. Maybe I should just take a nap, I needed to get my mind off things.

I had fallen asleep before I even knew it. Sleep for me was always a dangerous thing, it was always a toss up if I would have a nightmare or not, nightmares happening more often than not. So of course, this one was a particularly bad dream.

Sans was slumped over in front of me, as the lights from the Judgement Hall fell upon him, casting him in the light. His eyes were closed. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was sleeping. He looked, well almost child like. Peaceful maybe was a better word for it. I couldn’t help but to giggle to myself. I had finally done it, I had finally beaten him! He had killed me over and over again, but now, now I could kill him! The knife in my hand felt practically featherlight as I brought it down across his chest. He opened his eyes, his smile faltering for a moment. Then he looked beyond me, to someone I couldn’t even see. 

"Welp... I’m going to Grillby's... Papyrus, do you want anything?"

My heart just about sank to the floor. I started walking forward, not even looking back to see him fade into dust. I couldn’t let this timeline stand. I had to fix everything. I had thought it was fun at first, but now, now I could see how wrong I was. I just had to reset, I just had to make everyone happy again.

Of course, I didn’t know the cost of bringing the world back…

I woke up, feeling my heart pounding in my chest. I had that nightmare so often, of the moments leading up to me finally giving my soul to Chara. I had been so stupid. No matter what I did after that, no matter how many timelines I reset, that one mistake could never be undone. I wanted to cry. I really was an awful person, wasn’t I?

I got out of bed, and headed downstairs, trying to keep the stairs from creaking too loudly as I descended. That was pretty pointless though, as Mom was still awake, sitting in her chair drinking a cup of tea and reading a book. “Um, Mom?” I said quietly.

“Oh, you are awake! Would you like that slice of pie now?”

I shook my head. “I’m gonna go see Sans for a little bit, okay?”

Her face was pained, but she nodded back. “Be careful out there.”

…

My reflection on the past was cut short by another text message.

MEET ME IN FRONT OF THE NICE CREAM STORE. WE ARE ABOUT TO START OPERATION FIND LAZY BONES!  
8:04pm

Okay!  
8:04pm

I didn’t know how well Mom would react to me going out of the house again after I had “fainted” in the Underground and gone missing. Despite everything else going on, it was so nice that everyone cared about me so much when I went missing, even if it had been for their own good. I really felt loved by everyone. I just wished I could help them all be happy. Of course that meant Sans most of all! And right now he seemed the saddest. I could understand, I mean I knew what he was feeling, I had lived through Chara Hell for so long.

I informed Mom of where I was going. She must have seen my desperation to find Sans, coupled with the fact that I would be with Papyrus, because she gave in very easily. With her insistence I pulled on my warmest sweater and put on a scarf. It was still pretty cold at night even if it was spring already.

I walked along the sidewalk towards the Nice Cream store, a slight chill coming across me already. I walked quicker, hoping to warm myself up, and so that Papyrus wouldn’t have to wait too long for me. 

Down the street leading up the the store I saw a slight commotion. Papyrus, Burgerpants, and Muffet were all standing outside looking up at a tree and shouting. I jogged slightly so I could see what was going on.

“Muffin! Come down here right now dearie!” Muffet was calling, two of her hands cupped around her mouth, the other four on her hips.

“Hey there little spider buddy, come down the tree!” Burgerpant’s face seemed to shift and elongate as he spoke. I never asked him how he could do that, but he always had the best expressions.

I looked up the tree and saw the rather large spider sitting up on one of the branches. As everyone called out to him, he clicked his fangs at them. Papyrus was trying to jump up and grab him, but he couldn’t quite reach. I had a plan of course.

“Pap! Lift me up, I’ll get him down.” I shouted over the noise.

“YES! GOOD PLAN HUMAN!” Papyrus yelled. He lifted me up with ease. It was a bit scary, but he held onto my ankles tightly as I stood on his shoulders. I lifted my arms up, grabbing a branch with one of my hands to steady myself, and used my other hand to beckon towards the spider.

“C’mere Muffin.” I called out. He just clicked his fangs at me some more. Goodness! I fished in my pocket, hoping I would find something to help me. Hm, a piece of gum? Do spiders like gum? I don’t know. I offer it to him, and he slowly crawls down the branch towards me, sniffing at the gum. I unwrap it for him. “Hey, don’t you want this gum? It’s cinnamon flavored, soooo good.” 

He leaps towards it, taking it between his fangs. He starts chewing on it, and a rather confused expression comes across his face. I take the opportunity to nab him. He doesn’t struggle, he’s too focused on chewing the gum. I sit down onto Papyrus’s shoulders, and hand Muffin back over to his proper owner. 

“Thank you dearies!” Muffin grins at us. “Oh, but I must thank you properly! Please, come back with me to my cafe.” 

I was about to protest, as we were supposed to be looking for Sans, but since I was riding on Papyrus’s shoulders currently and he screamed out “YES!” and started bolting towards her store, I had little choice in the matter.

I could hear Burgerpants mumbling something about wasting the past 28 years of his life or something and Muffet scrambling to catch up to us. I have little time to do anything else as I hold on tightly to his skull so I don’t fall over backwards. In record time we are standing in front of Muffet’s Cafe.

“Oh my, you run rather fast.” Muffet caught up to us fairly quickly, looking poised and prim as she always did, despite running a few blocks. I don’t know how she managed that. I wish I could be so cool.

“WELL I HAVE BEEN WORKING OUT.” Papyrus gave a grin, flexing his arm? Well I mean I assume that’s what he was doing, but he didn’t exactly have anything to flex so he just held out his arm. I remembered a rather amusing post Papyrus had put on UnderNet of him with photoshopped muscles and sunglasses on everything. 

Muffet gave a slight giggle at Papyrus’s flexing, and unlocked the door. “Please dearies, sit where ever you like. I will be right back.” Muffet carried her pet into the back of her cafe, while Papyrus finally let me down. We sat down and it wasn’t long before Muffet had returned with some tea and some plates with expertly decorated donuts. Each donut was chocolate frosted, but had licorice legs and two sprinkle eyes. Spider donuts! Cute! 

“Please, enjoy, on the house.” Muffet sat down at our table, and poured us each a cup a tea. 

I took a bite, it was just as good as I remembered, and getting it for free? Even better. You know what they say, free food always tastes the best. Well maybe no one actually says that, but I just did! “These are excellent!” I exclaim, and Muffet beams with pride.

“YES, BUT NO MATCH FOR MY ELEGANT AND REFINED PASTA SKILLS.” Papyrus shouts. “THEY ARE STILL VERY TASTY THOUGH.”

Muffet gives him a glare, but then looks him over for a moment. “Papyrus, can I ask you for a quick favor actually?”

“HMMM?” Papyrus said through a mouthful of donut.

“I have been designing a line of clothing, and I need a tall model to try it on, do you think you can do that for me?” Muffet covered her mouth with one hand and giggled slightly.

I was about to protest, I mean weren’t we getting a bit off track here, but I was kinda curious as to what Muffet had up her sleeve. Papyrus was super pumped of course. “YES!”

Muffet dragged Papyrus into the back. I sat alone for a moment, eating my donut and thinking. If I were Sans, where would I go? I assumed Papyrus had already checked his normal napping spots. Hmmm. Wait! I know!

That line of thinking was interrupted by a shout. “FRISK LOOK! I FINALLY HAVE HAIR!”

I turned to look, and almost dropped the cup of tea I was holding. Papyrus stood in front of me, wearing not only a long flowing blond wig, but also the most adorable lolita style dress. The top part was white, with a criss cross of black ribbon down the front, and a big black bow at the neckline. The bottom part was black, with a white lace at the very bottom. He even had on some long black boots. It fit him like a glove. Almost as if Muffet had made it just for him. I assumed that she had in fact done just that and had been looking for an excuse to get him to wear it. “You look super kawaii Papyrus!” I took out my phone and started snapping pictures. Everyone would have to see this, it was way too good!

Muffet tried to goad me into trying on a dress too, but no way! Papyrus got changed, although he seemed loathe to taking off the wig. Eventually he gave it back to Muffet, who told him he could come and model for her anytime he liked. I’d certainly like to see that! We parted ways, and I told Papyrus about my plan for finding Sans. He agreed, and so we found ourselves at Mt Ebott.


	14. Simple Words are the Hardest to Say

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *waltz in a month and a half late with Starbucks*
> 
> Sup?

Sans nearly fell over upon arriving back at his messy apartment. He managed to catch himself on the arm of his couch before sinking down into it. He had really messed everything up. Despite everything, he shouldn’t have made Frisk cry. He felt terrible. He knew he should apologize, if only for upsetting Frisk. He knew he was right about Chara, and Frisk, well like Chara had said, Frisk really just wanted to save everyone. Even if they didn’t really deserve it. Frisk really and truly believed that even the worst person could change, be redeemed. Sans went to pull his phone out of his pocket, when he realized that Frisk still had his hoodie, and his phone as well.

He considered getting back up and going to retrieve his things, but that seemed like a lot of work right now, and if there was anything he liked doing, it was nothing. Plus he didn’t really want to confront Frisk again right now. 

“You should go.” A voice came from in front of him. Startled, Sans accidentally summoned a bone and sent it flying forward. There was nothing there to hit, and the bone missed his television by a fraction of an inch.

Slowly before him, the form of Chara appeared. They seemed rather annoyed. They looked behind themself at the bone in the wall, and then back forwards at Sans. “Wow Sans. Nice job. You are so great at killing ghosts. I mean, the only thing you are better at is making Frisk cry!”

“Just go away. I liked it better when you didn’t talk.” Sans slumped back further into the couch. There was nothing he could do. Chara was apart of his soul now, and he couldn’t get rid of them. He was sure he’d learn to deal with them, but for now he just wanted to be alone.

“You want me to leave you alone so you can sit on the couch and mope about how you are pretty much the most terrible monster who ever existed? I mean, why do that when I can rub salt in your wounds about how awful you really are! That sounds like more fun to me.” Chara flipped back their hair and gave an innocent looking smile. “I mean, doesn’t misery love company?”

Chara sat down on the couch, obnoxiously close to Sans. It wasn’t like he could shove them away, there was nothing he could do but accept the fact that they were there now. That didn’t mean he had to play nice. “Oh, so you are miserable too? I can see that. Who would like a desperate murderer who only likes to make everyone around them as miserable as they are?”

Chara paused. They looked at Sans, their head tilted to the side as their smile curled up one side of their face. They ever so gently picked up their hand and flipped Sans off, their smile never wavering. 

“Really?” Sans said, but Chara just brought their finger closer to his face until they were practically sitting in his lap, their hand was the only thing in his vision. “Oh my god Chara.” He wanted so badly to push them away, even if that was impossible. Instead, he just started laughing. He couldn’t help himself. It was way too ridiculous. That stupid kid, the one who had murdered all his friends, had even killed him several times, and had possessed the body of the human he loved, was just flipping him off like a child.

“I’m not a child.” Chara flopped back onto the couch, finally putting their hand down. “Well I mean I guess I am technically because I died as a child, but hey, I’m a ghost now and I can make myself look any age I want! And also I’ve been around for even longer than you have, if that counts for anything...uhhh.” Chara paused and looked over at Sans, who was just glaring at them.

“Can you read my mind?” Sans said quietly.

“DUH. Oh my god you are the stupidest skeleton ever! I mean geez, even Papyrus is smarter than you, and he sometimes forgets what the sun is.”

Sans eyes went dark. “D o n ‘ t t a l k a b o u t m y b r o t h e r .”

“Woah there, don’t go all edge lord on me. I’m just stating simple facts here.” Sans continued to glare, the lights in his eyes still dim. “We are getting really off track here. You need to go apologize to Frisk.”

Sans finally let the lights return to his eyes. He crossed his arms across his chest, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable and exposed without his hoodie on. “Why would you even care?”

Chara gave an exasperated sigh. “Do it, or you’ll regret it.” Sans didn’t pay much heed to what they were saying as he noticed that Chara was doing something rather strange as they spoke. First they made a motion with their fist before pointing at Sans. He recognized that.

“You know sign language?” Sans asked.

Chara seemed to realize what they were doing and put their hands down. “That doesn’t matter. Go talk to Frisk right now. I’m serious. If you don’t you’ll have a bad time.”

“You can’t use my own lines on me.” Sans raised a bony brow at them. “Why are you dodging my questions? Doesn’t Frisk know some sign language too? Did they teach you?”

“Why are you pretending to have an interest in me all of a sudden? Just GO DO WHAT I SAID.” Chara leapt up from the couch before spinning around on their heels to face back towards Sans. They bent over so that their face was inches away from Sans. “I am so serious right now. You know what I’m capable of.” 

Sans felt his smile grow a tiny bit. He felt like he had some leverage here. Obviously Chara wanted Sans to go see Frisk so that they could kill Frisk, but they weren’t just possessing his body to go do it, so they couldn’t control him right now. “Well I’ll go if you tell me how you know sign language.”

“You are being a real shit head. How does Frisk put up with you. FINE. Do whatever you want. You’ll pay for it though.” Chara smiled before their body melted away into nothingness.

“Chara?” Sans called out tentatively. There was no response. He gave a sigh before standing up. If Chara couldn’t possess him right now, what harm would there be in going to see Frisk? He was about to take a shortcut when the dream he had several hours ago popped back into his head. The dream where Frisk had laid on the ground, bleeding, cold, and dead. He felt like something had hit him across his rib cage, knocking the wind out of him. He couldn’t chance it. He didn’t think he could bare to see Frisk hurt. If only he had his cell phone he could just text them. 

Sans started walking towards his room, careful to avoid all the trash from his fit when he thought Frisk was dead. With everything that kept happening, it was pointless to clean it up. Sans remembered how in the previous timeline, Papyrus had come over to clean and make him breakfast. Sans wondered if he would do the same in this timeline. He could only hope. Even though he had seen him less than an hour ago, he really missed Papyrus. 

Sans fell face forward into his bed. The sheets smelled a bit like ketchup. He should probably wash them. Or maybe not. He slipped into an uneasy sleep before he even realized it.

A mechanical whirl sound came from right outside Sans door, startling him into waking up. “Goodness me, does he ever clean up?” Came a loud dramatic voice, one obviously intent on waking him up. 

Sans grumbled before rubbing his eyes and getting up from bed. He teleported into his living room, and by chance, directly behind Mettaton. “Hey.”

Mettaton visibly jumped a bit before turning around. His face pulled down into a frown. “Sans.” Sans could swear he could see Mettaton’s eye twitch in annoyance, as if even the mere sight of Sans was too much for Mettaton to take.

Mettaton had a blue hoodie in his arms. He shoved it at Sans. Sans took it, trying to keep a cheerful disposition on his face. “Thanks pal. Did Frisk give this to you?”

“You know damn well they did. They called your brother in tears, asking him to bring you back your belongings, but I decided to come instead. I can’t even believe you Sans. First all the lies about Frisk’s disappearance, then you go and vanish for a few hours yourself, as if you couldn’t stand to have Papyrus take his attention away from you for even a moment. After Papyrus and Frisk go looking for you, and spend all that time trying to cheer you up, you make Frisk cry.” Mettaton didn’t stop to breathe, which made sense, because robots probably didn’t have to breathe, and he let his words fly out, the volume of his voice rising higher and higher as he jabbed a finger towards Sans. 

“Listen, buddy, pal, friend. I don't like you accusing me of things you don't understand.” Sans said, trying his best to keep a cheerful demeanor despite his rage. 

“Oh, I think I understand perfectly fine. You are doing something terrible to Frisk and trying to hide it from us. Frisk is too nice to blame you for your actions AND YOU ARE TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THEM.” Mettaton completely lost his cool, jabbing his finger into Sans’ chest with each word.

“Don't touch me.” Sans snarled back, grabbing tightly onto Mettaton’s arm, almost crushing the metal between his bony fingers. “You really think that poorly of me huh?”

Mettaton tried to yank his arm away, but Sans wouldn't yield. “It's not what I think. Your actions clearly show exactly what kind of monster you really are.”

Sans felt his anger bubbling over like a pot of boiling water. He was about to snap back a response when he felt that now all too familiar feeling of control being yanked away from him. He tried to fight against it, to stop Chara from taking over, but it was too little, too late.

“Ha, yes I am terrible and horrific.” Words came from Sans’ mouth, sounding practically foreign. “I'm all the things you think I am. I'm probably even worse than you think I am. I'm a murderer.” Sans could feel his smile growing wide as he laughed in a hysterical manner.

Mettaton looked horrified and struggled against Sans’ hold on his arm frantically. Sans mentally shouted at Chara, “Don't hurt him! No!”

Chara ignored Sans, and continued to speak, “Why shouldn't I kill you right here and now?” 

Mettaton let out a panicked scream. “Sans! What are you doing?”

Sans realized that Chara had summoned fiery red bones and encircled Mettaton in them. “Please Sans, we can talk about this. Please, I have a daughter, your niece, remember?”

“I like watching you beg for your pathetic life. Sure I could let you go, but then you'd go run to Papyrus and tell him everything. We can't have that now can we?” Chara giggled, and before Mettaton could spit out another word, the bones pierced him from all directions. Chara let go of his arm, and with a loud clang of metal, he fell to the ground, lifeless.

“Pathetic.” Chara spit out before they relinquished control back to Sans.

Sans fell to his knees in front of the still robot. He banished the bones away, and started shaking Mettaton. “Hey, you’re still alive right? Mettaton, answer me?”

Sans heard a laughing inside his head. “Yeah. No. He's a hunk of useless metal now. Ha! I guess that's something you both have in common, you are both useless!”

Sans let out a near animalistic growl. “Chara this is really not the time for stupid jokes.”

“Says the comedian who can't stop making puns.”

“Do I look like I'm joking right now?” Sans stood up, his hands shaking as he tried to process what had just occurred. He had killed Mettaton. He had killed his brother’s husband. He had to reset, right now.

“Oh, resetting again? Giving up so easily? Are you such a coward that you can't face the consequences of your actions? Well obviously since YOU WON'T APOLOGIZE TO FRISK.” Chara yelled into Sans’ mind, giving him a slight headache.

“Shut up, will you. You did this, not me.” Sans paced across his living room, trying to avoid looking at the crumbled form of Mettaton.

“Yes Sans, tell everyone the voices in your head made you do it! That should be worth a laugh.” Chara gave a loud laugh. 

“Actually.” Sans gave a small laugh himself. “Not as bad idea kid.”

“Woah wait you are thinking too fast I can't keep up, what are you planning on doing?” Chara sounded slightly panicked.

“You'll see, buckle in pal, it's time to go on Sans’ wild ride.”

Sans wasn't sure how to get to the place between without himself dying, but he had the reset powers now, so he was sure it was possible. In fact, he had a good idea of how to, from Frisk actions when they had disappeared. Sans headed into his kitchen, to the place where he had died the first time. He could hear Chara screaming “No!” over and over in his head, so he knew he was on the right track. He stood in the spot near his kitchen counter, and willed the world to reset. Everything seemed to spin around him, almost like when he took a shortcut, only far more extreme. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, sure enough, he had accomplished his goal. He was in the place between.

“Sans, you are planning on telling someone about me, aren't you? That's a really bad idea. You know that right?”

Sans ignored Chara’s begging. He was in charge now, and he was going to do things his way. He slammed his hand onto the reset button.

In a flash the world went from the pure blackness of the place between to the vibrant colors of the real world. Papyrus stood behind Sans, a hand on his shoulder and a look of grave concern on his face. Sans dropped the knife he was holding, and wrenched himself out of Papyrus’ grip. He didn't have time to explain and he immediately teleported away.

Directly into Alphys’ lab. She was sitting in a desk chair, sipping on some kind of soda while staring intently at a computer monitor. She was probably currently helping everyone look for the still missing Frisk.

“Sans,” Chara sounded incredibly desperate now, which pleased Sans. “Aren't you going to save Frisk? Are you really that against apologising to them that you gotta pull this stupid bullshit?”

Sans ignored them, and instead called out. “Alphys.”

Alphys jumped in her chair and nearly dropped her soda in surprise. She spun around in her chair to face Sans. “S-sans? What are you d-d-doing here?” She squeaked.

“I have something I need to tell you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wait didn't Frisk say they tried to tell someone about Chara before and it ended really poorly?
> 
> Um.
> 
> Sans.
> 
> I think you are the one actually on Chara’s Wild Ride.


	15. The Things That Break Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayyy, is it time for my monthly fanfic update? (Oh god I'm the worst I'm sorry)

Alphys placed her bottle of soda down on her desk before standing up. She stood, straightening her lab coat as she did so, and mumbled quietly, “W-what’s wrong Sans? Is th-this about Frisk?”

Sans paused. He hadn't really thought of how to exactly he would broach this topic. He surely needed her help though, and short of The Doctor himself, she knew the most about souls. He knew plenty himself, but he was positive he couldn't do anything about Chara by himself, especially when they could possess him and stop him. Sans took a deep breath, “Heh, kinda. It's a long story Alph.”

“Stop right now, or you really won't like what I'm about to do. I mean it Sans.” Chara growled in Sans’ mind, but he ignored their probably empty threat. If they could possess him right now, they would have already. He really needed to study to see if there was a pattern for when exactly they could, but now wasn't the time.

“Do you remember the first fallen child?” Sans paused meaning to let Alphys answer, but he was instead met with an incredibly loud screeching noise inside his head.

“What?” Alphys adjusted her glasses as she looked at Sans with concern. “What does th-that have to, to do with Frisk? And are y-you in pain? You don't l-look so well.”

Sans could hardly hear what she was saying over the loud noise in his head. Chara wouldn't relent in their wailing. Sans reached up, holding the sides of his head, hoping to block out the noise, but that was impossible as the sound was coming from inside his own mind. He fell down to his knees, one hand still on his head while his other was on the floor, stabilising him. Chara’s scream was so piercing he couldn't even hear what Alphys was saying as she rushed to his side.

“JUST STOP.” Sans yelled as loud as he could, his anger overpowering. It was in the moment he realized exactly what Chara had to do to take over his body. They had to make him mad. That realization came a bit too late, of course.

Alphys was backing away from Sans, her voice now audible without Chara’s screaming. “A-a-are you having a p-panic attack? Do you ne-need me to call Papyrus?”

The Chara controlled Sans turned to Alphys, and started giggling. “Oh yes, please call him. Call everyone.” Sans lifted one of his hands, his magic catching onto the soul of Alphys, turning her soul blue. “I have something I very much want to share with everyone.”

“Your eyes,” Alphys backed away from Sans, much slower now that her soul was being weighed down by magic. Sans could see a reflection of his face in her glasses, his face menacing, his eyes aflame in crimson tones. “That's not possible. H-how can you be wielding red magic? That's impossible!”

“Aww, I was hoping I could have a little bit more fun with you.” Chara lifted Sans’ arm up, making Alphys also start lifting from the ground. She struggled desperately against the magic surrounding her soul, but it was of little use. “But you ask too many questions.”

Chara flung Alphys to the roof, slamming her form so hard that there was an audible cracking sound. They let go of her, letting her fall back to the ground. Alphys barely had time to look up at Sans and mutter a, “Why?” before her former evaporated into dust.

“That was too easy. She didn't even fight back. That's no fun at all.” Chara snickered. “I wonder if your brother will fight back if he is fighting you Sans? Oh, I can't wait to see the look of betrayal on his face when I finally kill him as you.”

Sans tried to regain control of his body, but Chara wasn't letting go this time. He felt so trapped inside his own mind, watching terrible events play out before him with no way to affect any change. His soul was screaming for release from this awful prison. “Chara, you can't kill Papyrus, please.”

Chara ignored him, and took Sans’ phone from his pocket. They flipped it open and selected Papyrus to call. Sans listened as the line rang, hoping that for once in his life Papyrus would not answer the phone. It was very unlikely considering how he had left his brother, but he still had to hope, it was all he had left.

“HELLO?” The familiar voice, tinged with worry, answered the phone.

“Bro, it's me. I really need to talk to you immediately, it's very important. Where are you?” Chara said with all due seriousness, actually trying to mimic Sans.

“I WAS HEADING TO TORIEL’S HOUSE. I AM ON THE CORNER OF FROGGIT ROAD AND WHIMSUN WAY.”

Chara had already hung up the phone. “Oh man, I've always wanted to take one of your famous shortcuts.” Chara gave a wink, and took a step forward.

Directly in front of Papyrus who was still yelling into his phone despite Sans no longer being on the line. He dropped the phone when he saw Sans standing in front of him.

“BROTHER? WHAT IS WRONG? WHY ARE YOU COVERED IN DUST?”

“Bro, it was so awful.” Chara let out a fake sob. “Please, I need a hug.”

Papyrus scooped Sans up in his arms without a second thought. Sans had no choice but to watch in horror as Chara started summoning a plethora of bones beneath both of them. He braced himself for the inevitable attack.

Except instead of feeling bones piercing them, Sans felt himself being lifted up in the air as Papyrus nimbly leapt up and out of the way. He landed and placed Sans on the ground, confusion spread across his face. He spoke in a softer tone now. “Sans, why did you do that? What's going on?”

Sans could hear Chara growl in his head, as they lifted their arm and sent another wave of bones at Papyrus. The bones dug into someone's yard, churning up the dirt as they went sailing past the younger skeleton. Papyrus was well versed in bone attacks, and Chara unpracticed in their attack. There was no way they'd ever be able to hit him. Chara put their arm down, panting slightly as they did.

Sans noticed how Papyrus looked around himself to make sure no one else had been injured in the attack before walking swiftly back to Sans. “Why are you attacking me Sans? This is not the time or place for such activities. Someone might have been injured.”

Chara waited until Papyrus had stepped close enough to them, before launching themself into his ribcage with as much force as they could muster. There was a sickening crack as the two hit the ground. Sans wasn't sure if it was from his body or Papyrus’s. Chara placed their hands on the Papyrus’s shoulders, before screaming in his face, “I hate you!”

Papyrus wrapped his arms around Sans in a comforting supportive manner. “Sans, I know you are only saying that because you don't really like yourself right now. It's okay though, I have more than enough love to share with you until you can love yourself.”

There was an audible growl this time as Chara raised their arm up to summon another bone. “You really are far too nice for your own good.” 

Another crack came as Chara pierced Papyrus’s right arm with a bone. Splinters of bone went flying off and Papyrus gave a whimper, the force of the impact pulling Papyrus’s arms away from Sans. Sans could see how hurt he was by the darkness forming in his eyes. Normally his eyes sparkled brightly, to see them so dim was tragic.

Papyrus wrapped his uninjured arm around Sans, pulling him tightly against his chest again. “I don't know what's going on Brother, but it will be okay. We can talk about this. Just stop attacking. Can you hear me Sans? Please say something.”

Chara was silent. They seemed to be contemplating something. Sans did not have the liberty of being able to read their thoughts to see what it might be. All he could do was wait to see what they might do. 

“I love you Sans. Please, answer me. Whatever it is we can work through it together.” Papyrus continued his pleading. Sans swore he could feel something wet on his face, but he couldn't tell what it was, not with Chara in control. All he could hear was Papyrus muttering that he loved Sans over and over while still holding onto him so tightly.

“I don't deserve any amount of LOVE.” Chara screamed. Sans heard, and then felt a bone that had pierced through the two skeletons. It probably wasn't enough to kill Papyrus, but for a skeleton with practically no health like Sans, it was a one hit kill.

Sans could hear his brother screaming as the world faded to black.

He was back in the Place Between. Chara’s ghostly form sat beside him, their body huddled down hiding their face behind their arms. Sans gave a deep sigh as he laid down on the ground and stared into the inky blackness ceiling. He wanted to sulk, to brood and feel bad for himself after all that had happened, but he couldn't. There was something far more important to do now.

“Bud, let's go apologize to Frisk now.” Sans said as he sat up.

Chara lifted their head from their arms, and gave a small nod. Sans reached out to the reset button. He was about to press down when he felt Chara grab his arm.

“Wait, I need to talk to you about something first.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm working on some other things right now, so I'm starting to wrap this story up a bit faster than I intended so sorry if things seem rushed it took me so long to write this and I still don't like it. *lays down on the floor wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants that have the words "I have given up" printed all over them*


	16. The Things That Change Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter? Truth is I wrote this one and the next one a long time ago. So I can get these chapters out quick and finish this story up! I split this chapter in two cause it got overly long.
> 
> ADDITIONAL WARNINGS: Child abuse, animal abuse, suicidal thoughts, and suicide attempts.

Sans dropped his arm down from the reset button and looked at Chara. He wanted to scream at them, but he held his nonexistent tongue. Strangely he felt like something had changed between them, and it's wasn't like he was really in any rush to reset at this point, so he might as well listen. “Go ahead.”

“It's really stupid. You know? I'm really stupid. I feel like I had forgotten a lot of things, but when your brother held you and told you he loved you despite you hurting him, it reminded me of my brother.” Chara wasn't looking at Sans, instead they were playing with the sleeves of their sweater.

“Asriel?” Sans questioned.

“Yeah. He was really great, but maybe a bit too nice for his own good sometimes. Just like Papyrus, Asriel probably could never hurt anyone, or be mean to anyone. He was sweet and pure, like an angel or something. I don't even know what I'm trying to say here. Do you know how I died?” Chara stared forward towards where the reset button was, still avoiding looking at Sans.

“You mean when you got sick?” 

“I didn't get sick. I poisoned myself. It's kinda a long story. Will you listen to it? I think you’ll understand why Frisk is trying to save me then. And I don't want you to apologize to them without really understanding."

Sans looked around the inky dark room that comprised the Place Between. “Lay it on me kiddo.”

Chara gave a soft smile before finally looking over to Sans. “It all began many, many years ago…”

…

 

Chara looked down at their dirty shoes. They sometimes dreamed of getting new shoes, not a hand me down from one of their cousins. Chara scratched at their arm nervously. They were walking along a silent path carved through some grass. They kicked up the dirt as they walked along, watching it get blown about by the small breeze. They really didn't want to go home. Not that it really felt like a home. More like a place where everyone hated Chara, but they all still had to take care of Chara, even if with only the most bare minimum of effort. 

As the path through the grass cleared, Chara could see their old broken down house. They looked around for the cat they had semi-adopted. Chara had named him Sunflower, which was a great name for the cream colored cat with bright yellow eyes. Their uncle wouldn't let them bring the cat inside, so Chara kept him outside, feeding him and bringing him water. Sunflower was a small bit of comfort in their life, and probably one of the few reasons they even came home anymore.

But Sunflower wasn't here today.

An unease gripped Chara’s heart. They opened up the front door, and their uncle was sitting on a couch reading a newspaper, while their aunt and several cousins ran around in the kitchen. “Where is dad?” Chara asked nervously as they approached their uncle. He lowered the newspaper enough to glare at Chara over the top of it. He gave a shrug. “Okay. Have you seen Sunflower?”

Chara’s uncle put his newspaper in his lap and looked at Chara with disdain. “Yer cat? He's dead.”

“What?” Chara could feel tears immediately spring to their eyes. “What happened?”

“Listen here brat. We don't have enough food to feed a cat. You're lucky we are even feeding you and yer dead beat dad. Now stop bothering me and help yer auntie make supper.” He brought the newspaper back up again, clearly signaling that the conversation was over.

Chara made a fist with their hand, their nails biting deeply into their palm. “You killed my cat!” When he didn't respond, Chara stomped up to him and ripped the newspaper out of his hands. “HOW COULD YOU.”

Chara’s uncle stood up, sneering at the child. He raised his hand and smacked Chara across the face. “Listen here you snot nosed brat. This is my house, my rules. Ya don't like it? Then get out.”

Chara stood up, their cheek stinging from where they had been hit, and did just that. They got out and started running and didn't even look back. They just hated everyone so much. Their uncle and aunt who had taken everything from them. Their father who was hardly around and didn't seem to care how Chara was treated. Their mother for dying and leaving Chara all alone. Chara hated them all. They wished that they all would die, but that wasn't possible. Chara would just have to die instead.

They ran through fields of grass, through prickly pines that tore at their clothes and scratched their skin. They ran up and over rocks, banging their knees and elbows along the way. Up and up the mountain they weren't supposed to go to. The one that it was rumored monsters lived under. That couldn't possibly be true, but maybe if it was the monsters would eat Chara up.

The path became harder and harder to climb as Chara ascended, their hands gripping at rocks as they crawled up the mountain side. By the time they reached the summit, it was dark out. They could hardly see where they were going, when they tripped over a root sticking out of the ground. They started falling, and didn't stop. Chara couldn't see where they were falling to, but they guessed it didn't matter. Dying one way or another, it didn't matter. As long as they no longer had to exist on this planet anymore, then any death would suffice. Chara felt determined to die.

When they hit the bottom of the long fall, they went unconscious.

Hours later, as the sun was shining bright enough to illuminate a small circle around Chara’s body, they finally woke up when they heard a timid voice calling out to them. “Are you okay?”

Chara could hardly open their eyes to see the strange goat monster standing above them. He had a hand extended towards Chara, which in Chara’s sleepy haze, they took. “Howdy, I'm Asriel. And your name is?”

“Chara.” Their head was pounding, but overall they didn't feel like they had fallen down a rather large hole. Everything felt very confusing. Asriel helped support them, and Chara got a good look at the place they had fallen. There were pillars covered in ivy, and small flowers blooming among them. 

“That’s a nice name. Are you a human?” Asriel asked as the two moved forward. Chara nodded, they didn't feel up to talking. “Wow, I've never seen a real human before. I'll get my mom to heal you up, then maybe we can be friends!”

Chara smiled at the little goat’s enthusiasm. “But aren't you a monster? You're not gonna eat me right?”

“What? Why would I eat you?” Asriel sputtered out, clearly confused and distressed. Chara laughed. Seemed their plan of death had failed two fold.

The Dreemurr family took care of Chara, and healed their various wounds. They became like the family Chara had always wanted, but never could have. Who knew that monsters could be more compassionate than humans? It was then that Chara hatched a plan, to help the monsters escape from their underground prison. And all they would have to do was die.

After consuming so many buttercups that Chara felt like they couldn't eat another bite, after being confined to bed for days and days, dreaming and hallucinating of a life on the surface, of fields of beautiful yellow sunflowers, after all that, Chara finally died.

Asriel had been by their side as they passed. He had hardly left their side since they ate the buttercups. He knew the plan, and he had to be there so he could control their soul. He held their hand in his as they closed their eyes for the final time, whispering over and over “I love you,” even though he was unsure they'd be able to hear.

Asriel absorbed Chara’s soul. The child who had died was brought back to life. It was as if a cruel god had decided they could never die, no matter how determined they were to do so.

…

“And well, I guess you know the rest of the story. Asriel and I tried to get seven human souls to break the barrier and we were killed.” Chara sighed. “I couldn't even die doing something to save everyone. I'm a failure in every way.”

“Heh, kid I may be a huge bone head,” Sans paused just long enough for Chara to let out a groan from the terrible pun, “But you didn't fail completely. In a way, what you did eventually helped the monsters escape, at least that's how I see it. And you didn't kill my bro just now, even if you did kill us. I think that's worth something.”

“I mean, I couldn't kill him! I'm not soulless. Err, well maybe that was a poor choice of words.” Chara stuck out their tongue at Sans. “It's nice to see someone with as much hope and love as he has. And I do mean love, not LOVE.” Chara finger spelled the word “love” out as they spoke.

“You are signing again.” Sans said, “You never did tell me about that.”

“Well I was pissed! I guess I couldn't expect you to apologize to Frisk when you didn't know the whole story. I guess you still don't. But anyway, my mom was a sign language teacher, before she died. I didn't like to talk when I was born, so she taught me. That kinda pissed my dad off though. I taught it to Frisk ‘cause they didn't always like to talk either when they were little.”

“Really? They always talked to me.” Sans pondered.

“Duh, they liked you. Not like in a crush way back then, more of a really good friend way. The crush thing happened much later.” Chara pouted. “Despite my best efforts against it!”

“Hey, I'm a lovely bag of bones.” 

“Maybe I can kinda see what they saw in you. Maybe. Hey Sans, do you think even the worst person can change?” Chara said in their best Sans impression.

“Oh no you are stealing my lines again.” Sans smiled. “I think they can.”

“Me too. What do you say we get out of this black hell and back to the living one?” Chara stood back up, and stretched their arms over their head. “Oh, but before we go, we really need to stop lying to everyone.”

“Are you gonna let me tell everyone about you?” Sans questioned. He was having a hard time believing what Chara was saying. Had Papyrus really affected them so much as to completely change their personality?

“I can still read you mind! There is more to the story, and I think it'll help convince you that I'm not just lying to trick you or anything, but that part involves Frisk so we should talk to them about it. In the meantime, let me control you when you reset. I will show you what I mean, and that I am telling the truth. If you don't like it, you can just reset immediately.” Chara grinned at Sans. “No funny business.”

“Okay, fine. I'll trust you.” Sans took in a deep gulp of air before bringing his hand down on the reset button.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Other things I have been working on related to this chapter:
> 
> Row by Row: A more comprehensive look at Chara's time with the Dreemurr family and how they helped them heal: http://archiveofourown.org/works/7718284/chapters/17589919
> 
> Orange: A music video I made detailing Chara and Asriel's time together up until they enacted their plan and Asriel took their soul:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCqFPXV4l1g


	17. To Tell The Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy One Year Anniversary Undertale!!
> 
> Undertale really changed my life! It's such a great game. Here, have a chapter!

As the real world melted back into view, Sans let Chara take control, despite every bone in his body screaming at him that this was the worst idea ever. Still, he felt that it couldn't go too horribly wrong, and even if it did, he was already at the reset point, he could just reset and never freely give Chara control again, simple as that. Sans watched as Chara turned around to face a hysterical Papyrus, a Papyrus who thought his brother was on the brink of suicide. Sans hoped this could be the last reset so he'd never have to see his brother in such a state again.

Chara faced Papyrus with the knife still in hand. Slightly startled, Papyrus took a step back. “Okay, this is gonna sound crazy but I'm not Sans, I'm a ghost.”

Sans mentally face palmed. What a great start to trying to get Papyrus to understand. “UMMMMM.” Papyrus took another step back, reaching into his pocket for something.

“Okay, I know you probably think I'm crazy, but I'm Chara. The human that died a long time ago. You know about me right? Yeah I'm kinda possessing your brother right now, sorry about that.” Chara absentmindedly tapped the knife they were holding against Sans’ skull.

“Kid, maybe you'd look more credible if you put the knife down.” Sans sighed in his mind.

“Oh, oops.” Chara placed the knife down behind them, then turned back to face Papyrus who had his phone in his hands. “Papyrus, I know that story sounds super sketchy, and I don't blame you for thinking I've gone off my rocker, but doesn't this scene feel eerily familiar?”

“ACTUALLY.” Papyrus looked up from his phone and stared Sans down. “I HAVE A STRANGE SENSE OF DEJA VU. I FEEL AS IF I HAVE BEEN LIVING THIS SAME MOMENT OVER AND OVER, BUT IT IS ALWAYS SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT. THIS TIME IT'S VERY DIFFERENT. ALSO I FEEL SLIGHTLY SCARED OF YOU RIGHT NOW, WHICH DOESN'T SEEM RIGHT WHY WOULD I BE SCARED OF MY OWN BROTHER?”

“Okay well it's awfully complicated…” Chara started.

“Don't tell him about timelines!” Sans called out at Chara from within his own mind.

“He already practically knows, don't you want him to trust us about this?” Chara bickered back.

“He can't handle it.” Sans replied.

“No, you can't handle him knowing. He can handle it perfectly fine. Have more faith in him.”

“If I have to put any more faith in people today I might as well open up a church.”

“That's the worst joke I ever heard and it hardly even makes sense. You really should just stick to puns.” Chara sighed.

“UMMMMM, SANS, WHAT WERE YOU SAYING?” Papyrus interrupted the other two’s mental fighting.

“Okay, sorry, I was fighting with Sans about something dumb. I'm Chara remember?” Chara looked at Papyrus with a huge grin.

“ERRRR.” Papyrus looked as if he was desperately trying to process information but getting nowhere fast. “So you are both Chara and my brother then?” His voice lowered as he sunk deeper into thoughts.

“Yup. Two for one deal here. Kinda hitched a ride on your brother's soul. But it's more complicated than that. I want to tell you everything, but it would probably be easier to tell everyone at once. Why don't you gather all your friends up, me and Sans will go and get Frisk. Then we can all explain together. Sounds good?” Chara exposited.

Papyrus stood dumbfounded for a moment, but then he broke into a smile, “I don't know what's going on, but I trust you Sans. Err Chara. Chans? Sanara? We’ll figure out that later! OFF I GO!” As quickly as a bunny who had way too much caffeine Papyrus hopped off.

“Are you ready to see Frisk again?” Chara asked quietly.

“As ready as I'll ever be.” Chara took a step forward and Sans found himself back in the Underground.

Lying there, among the many yellow flowers, Frisk was sleeping soundly. This time, Sans saw a flower snuggled against their shoulder, and it had a face.

The flower looked up, it's face morphed into something more demonic as it whipped out a vine grabbing Sans by the ankle and lifting him into the air.

“Attack it!” Sans shouted in his head.

“No!” Chara replied back internally.

Sans didn't get a chance to reply back before the flower started to speak. “What are you doing back here? This is all your fault. You made Frisk so sad!”

Chara answered quickly, “We were coming to apologize!” 

“We? Oh that's right. Chara is in there too now, aren't they? Well you aren't blameless in this either! You keep toying with people, killing everyone...is this really the world you wanted? Monsters are free now! Why do you keep insisting to kill when the battle is done! You don't make any sense at all! Do you just enjoy seeing people suffering?”

Frisk sat up, rubbing their eyes, clearly awoken by all the shouting. For a moment they looked from the flower, to Sans, back to the flower again. “Asriel! Put them down.” 

The flower’s face fell, and looked downright sheepish. Maybe goatish would be a better term for it. He dumped Sans back on the ground, and he landed with a small, “Ow.”

Sans sat up, Chara finally let him have control of his body back. A ghostly Chara appeared sitting down next to Sans, their arms folded against their chest, an aloof look on their face.

Sans collected his thoughts. That stupid flower, the original anomaly that started this whole mess, the one he assumed died when Frisk managed to break the barrier, was Asriel all along? He could hardly believe it, but he was getting used to all kinds of unbelievable things recently.

Frisk stood up and marched over to where Sans and Chara were sitting, their hands on their hips and a scowl on their face. “Ugh! I'm so, so, so mad at you two! Were you trying to punish me? First you disappeared when you got mad at me, then you reset the timeline, then you reset it again almost immediately without even coming back here! I don't understand it!”

“I'm sorry.” Sans looked up at Frisk, then back down at his hands. “I didn't want to hurt you. I didn't understand why you wanted to save Chara, I do now though, I think. I'm really very sorry for how I treated you.”

“I'm sorry too. I was acting out a lot. I wanted to punish you, yes that's true. I wanted to see you suffer, not just for what happened in the Underground, but for you trying to lock us away in the Place Inbetween. I was mad! But then I remembered something. I tried to kill Papyrus, and I just couldn't do it. He reminded me too much of my own brother.” Chara looked over at Asriel who had popped up next to Frisk.

“Me?” Asriel asked as he tilted his head to the side. “Papyrus is so sweet and kind though.”

“You are too, I mean at least you were when we were kids before Alphys accidentally brought you back to life with that determination.” Chara uncrossed their arms, but instead brought their knees up to their chin, and wrapped their arms around their legs. “Back before everything went so wrong.”

Frisk sat down next to Asriel, brushing a hand against his petals as they did. They turned to look at the others. “I forgive you guys, and I'm glad you understand about Chara now Sans, but what are we going to do now? You can't keep resetting.”

“Papyrus is getting everyone together now. We decided it's time to tell everyone the truth. About everything. Then maybe we can find a way to help me?” Chara paused, looking around at everyone. “Maybe I can finally die.”

Frisk’s face fell in an instant. “You don't mean that right?”

“Frisk I've been dead a long time, I don't want to keep doing this anymore. I'm so tired. I can only live as a ghost, a parasite on other people's souls. That's no way to live. Or not live. Continue on being dead. You know what I mean.” Chara gave a deep sigh. “Besides, I'm bad. I know that. Even if I have a moment of clarity now, what if I go back to killing everyone again?”

“This is all my fault.” Frisk covered their face with their hands. “I made you this way. If I hadn't killed so much in the Underground, if I hadn't shown you how dark and evil humanity can really be, maybe you'd have been kinder.”

Chara scooted their ghostly body closer to Frisk. They put their hand on Frisk’s shoulder, a gesture that was pointless as Chara was intangible, but Frisk still looked at them with a sad smile. “It's not your fault. I hated humanity and everything before you came along. They were cruel to me when I was alive, and then again after I died and was apart of Asriel. I knew there could be good people, you spent the last eight years trying to redeem yourself. I just couldn't get over my anger, I refused to see the good. I wanted to punish you for your cruelty. But I was just as bad, wasn't I?”

“Wait. So Frisk was the one who killed everyone in Underground?” Sans asked. He had assumed it had been Chara since he learned of their existence, but now it seemed the script had been flipped.

“Yeah.” Frisk looked uncomfortable, “It's so dumb. I was so dumb. I was just a stupid kid, you know. After I saved everybody the first time, I had this gnawing feeling. That I wasn't done yet. That there was more to the story, that I could even save Asriel if I just did the right things. I kept going through the same things, over and over, trying everything. Eventually I got so mad I started killing. I mean, it's not like anyone would remember. Well except you. I'm sorry I put you through such hell. And sorry to you too Chara, I broke you. You wanted to believe I was good, but I proved that I was awful. And I couldn't even save Asriel in the end. I failed everything.”

“It's okay Frisk.” Sans stood up and walked towards them, kneeling down in front of them, and placing his hands on both their shoulders, overlapping Chara’s hand. He pressed his teeth against their forehead in a skeleton kisses before backing away enough to look them in the eyes. “We've all done bad things, and I forgave you for everything in the Underground a long time ago. You didn't fail. You saved everyone. Plus, Asriel is still here, even if he's got some thorns now.”

“I'll show you some thorns,” Asriel muttered under his breath.

“Point being, we can solve everything together. You've had such a huge burden for so long. It's time we all stopped keeping secrets, from each other, from everyone else. Are you ready hon?” Sans lowered one of his hands onto one of Frisk’s.

Frisk's eyes looked slightly damp, but they tilted their head to the side and gave a big smile. They tightly gripped onto Sans’ hand as he helped them off the ground. “I'm ready.” Frisk looked down at Asriel, “I'll come back to visit you soon.”

Chara stood up on the other side of Sans, and put their hand on his. Even if they couldn't actually hold it, they wanted to show their solidarity. Together, the three took a step forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what any more. Things are wrapping up now though. One more chapter.


	18. Fall Away

Sans and Frisk stood in front of the cozy house where both Toriel and Frisk lived. Chara had vanished from view, but Sans could hear them nervously mumbling in his mind. He didn't feel prepared for this either. He slowly made his way up the sidewalk in front of the house, pretending to be engrossed in the flowers growing along the edge of the house. In a quick motion, Sans brought his free hand up and knocked on the door.

He had heard some voices inside, but they instantly hushed when he knocked. Sans took a quick look over at Frisk. They were looking down and away from the house, but with the midday sun shining down on them, the sunlight catching in their hair making it almost seem to glow, they looked stunning. Sans gave their hand a quick squeeze, and Frisk turned to him and smiled. He suddenly felt a lot braver, more sure about what they were about to do. 

Toriel opened up the door, letting the two inside. Everyone was there. Papyrus and Mettaton were sitting at the kitchen table, Arial sitting on Papyrus’s lap looking at a picture book. Alphys and Undyne were sitting on the couch, while a very nervous looking Asgore stood behind it. They were all deadly silent, all staring intently at the couple who had just joined them.

Toriel was the first to speak, pulling Frisk into a hug and whispering, “I am glad you are safe my child. Please, Papyrus said you two had something to tell us? Concerning Chara?” Toriel pulled away from Frisk, a pained expression on her face. She went and stood next to Asgore, her hand wrapping around his for support. 

Sans and Frisk went and sat at the two remaining seats at the dining room table. Sans looked over at everyone sitting and staring at him. He felt nervous all over again. A voice whimpered in his head, “I don't wanna do this anymore, I'm scared. Teleport us outta here please!”

“I’m not gonna run away anymore Chara.” Sans said. Then he realized everyone was looking at him with stunned expressions. “Uh, oops, didn't mean to say that out loud.” Sans nervously scratched the back of his skull.

“Clearly,” Mettaton gave him a nasty look. “Although you could be just lying again and trying to give credibility to you insane story? I wish you didn't have to drag the name of a child who passed away years ago into this.”

“He's not lying!” Frisk pounded a fist onto the table, making Alphys jump and give a startled squeak.

“I also wish he didn't drag you into this Frisk. Are you going to tell me Chara had something to do with your disappearance act last night too?” Mettaton scowled.

“Well, yes, actually. It's a long story. Maybe Arial shouldn't hear it though.” Frisk looked at the smallest skeleton in the room.

“But I wanna hear! I missed you Frisk, I don't wanna go away.” Arial pouted.

“It's okay sweetie, why don't you go play outside. Frisk will join you when we are done talking.” Papyrus hoisted Arial off his lap, and lead her to the front door. “STAY IN THE YARD PLEASE.” He called after her, and then shut the door.

“Please, go ahead and tell us about Chara.” Toriel said when Papyrus had returned to his seat.

“It all started when I fell into the Underground, so many years ago,” Frisk started, taking a gulp of air before continuing. “I guess I died when I fell. But not really. I was saved by chance, because of my own determination, and someone else's. Someone who was buried under where I fell.”

“You mean Chara?” Toriel asked, looking over at Asgore, who had a bit of a guilty look on his face.

“Yeah, Chara’s soul and my soul were bounded together by some twist of fate neither of us could really understand. They would talk to me, help me solve puzzles, show me how to use mercy on monsters. We were having a great time, and I was happy to have a friend, even if no one but me could see or hear them. But then I died.”

“Y-you died?” Alphys asked.

“Yeah, I was fighting the dog guards out in Snowdin. I couldn't figure out how to show them mercy, and I was already low on health. They killed me, but I didn't die. Instead I just got sent back in time to before I died. I had too much determination to die, at least as long as Chara stayed in my soul.”

“I realized I could control that power at will, but some people, those with high determination like Sans, could remember what I had done before. Although most of you guys here remembered little parts too.”

“Wait, why does Sans have high determination? How come he’s not melting?” Undyne blurted out.

“That's a complicated story in itself. Let's just say that when I was a kid, the former Royal Scientist decided to use me for experiment.” Sans said with a bit of a shrug, but both Alphys and Papyrus gave a gasp of shock.

“I never heard of those experiments being run in my kingdom.” Asgore was practically shaking with rage. “What was his name? I can't remember for some reason.”

“We can get into that later, and it doesn't really matter now, he's long gone now.” Sans leaned back into his chair, tilting it back a bit. He really didn't want to get into that whole mess at the moment. It was way too complicated.

“Okay, so here's the hard part,” Frisk paused, Sans patted them on the shoulder in a reassuring way.

“You can do it Frisk!” Chara made themself appear next to Frisk. “I know it's a hard story to tell, but we made it this far, right?”

“Yeah, thanks Chara.” Frisk said with a sigh. They went on to tell the tale of how they used their determination powers to reset the world over time and time again, but left Asriel out of the story. Sans didn't question them on that. Frisk told them that upon the genocide of almost all monsters, they ended up having to sell their soul to Chara to reset the world back again. That's when Chara began to take control over them. Eventually though, Frisk rescued all the monsters for good, leading to this current timeline.

Afterwards, Sans told his side, how he had rescued Frisk and given his soul to Chara instead. Then he gained the determination powers himself. Now he was living with Chara, who upon seeing the kindness shown to them by Papyrus, had decided to turn over a new leaf.

“There is one thing I don't get about your story, Frisk.” Mettaton said, taking a glance out the window where Arial was playing in the yard. “Why would you continue resetting after you freed us all? What were you hoping to accomplish?”

Frisk looked down at the table. “I can't tell you.”

“What! I thought we said no more secrets Frisk!” Chara growled.

“Yeah, but that's not my secret to tell Chara. I want to say it, but that wouldn't be fair to him.” Frisk crossed their arms across their chest, looking over at the ghost human no one else but Sans could see.

“Well that was quite a tale, and certainly makes things make a lot more sense, but what do we do now?” Toriel asked, looking at Sans and Frisk. “Can we save Chara? Perhaps we can build them a body like Mettaton?”

Alphys stood up, “I, I, I don't know about that. Sans, c-can I see your soul?” 

Sans swung his legs over to the side of the chair, and summoned his soul out. Alphys examined it, while talking to herself. “Red? Hmm, oh dear.”

“Well, can you do something?” Toriel sounded practically on the edge of tears.

“T-there is only a t-tiny fragment of soul left, if I were to s-s-separate it, Chara would probably just die.” Alphys twisted her hands together.

“Good!” Chara said.

“Uh, the kid says, ‘good’,” Sans said for Chara.

“They don't really mean that though, right?” Papyrus looked devastated.

“They said they wanted to die now, because they’ve been in this half alive, half dead state for years, and they are tired.” Sans told the rest.

“Oh, I suppose I was being very selfish, I wanted to see my child again.” Toriel turned away, and Asgore wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

“It's okay, I too wanted to see them again…” He said with a trembling voice.

“Mom, dad,” Chara reached out to them with hands that could never touch them. “They aren't even mad about all the bad things I did, that I basically killed their son. They still think of me as their child…” 

“Why don't you tell them that yourself?” Sans asked. “You can control me.”

“I'm scared. I've done such terrible things.”

“Yeah kiddo, we all have, and we all apologized for them. Now it's your turn.” Sans gave the ghost a big smile.

“Okay.” Chara took over control of Sans, standing him up and walking him over to their former parents.

“Mom, dad, I'm so sorry.” Chara looked at them, scratching at their arm nervously.

“My child, is that you? In Sans’ body?” Toriel asked with teary eyes.

“It's me! I'll prove it by telling you something only I would know. When I first fell into the Underground, I was in rough shape, but you taught me how to knit to help cheer me up.” Chara told the two goat monsters in front of them.

“It is you!” Toriel and Asgore both wrapped their arms around Sans. Chara hugged them back as tightly as they could.

When the family hug ended, Chara continued on talking. “I'm really sorry, for killing Asriel. It was really all my idea to give him my soul to break the barrier. Because of me, you guys broke up and the whole Underground lost hope. I really was a terrible child.”

“You weren't Chara.” Asgore spoke up. “You brought us so much joy. Especially to Asriel. He loved you so much.”

“Yes, if you only want to go away because of guilt, please reconsider, we love you and want you to stay.” Toriel interjected.

“I don't think it's possible, for me to live without another soul, and it's not fair for me to keep doing this. I've made Sans’ and Frisk’s lives hell for years now. It's time for me to move on.” Chara backed away slightly from them, crossing their arms, looking like they were holding back tears.

“If that is what you really want, that is what we will do.” Toriel gave a sad smile, motioning Chara back in for another hug.

 

…

After many days spent in Alphys’ lab, with her poking at Sans soul and the recalibration of a DT extractor, they were ready to remove Chara from Sans. They agreed to all meet up in the lab the next day to perform the extraction.

The night before, Sans and Frisk, joined of course by Chara, went back up to the top of Mt Ebott to watch the stars together one last time. Chara floated around the couple like a human balloon.

“Hey, who do you think will get the determination powers when I'm gone?” Chara asked, floating past Frisk's head.

Sans shrugged, but Frisk put a finger up to their lips in a thoughtful pose before responding. “Asriel, right? He had them before. Or maybe to no one. That would be best I guess. It's not really a power anyone should have.”

“I hope so. I don't want anymore misery or timeline shenanigans.” Chara brushed past Sans.

“Are you scared kiddo? I mean you've had more time to think about it all now, have you changed your mind at all?” Sans asked.

Chara came to a dead stop. They floated back down to Earth and sat in front of Sans and Frisk. “I am scared. But I'm still gonna do it. There is no reason for a ghost that only like three people, one of which is actually a psycho flower, can see. I died a long time ago, in my bed in the Underground. I wasn't supposed to have all this extra time. I'm grateful for it, even if I did act crazy for most of the time. Now it's time for me to go.”

“I'm gonna miss you. I already miss your voice in my head, even if you were just nagging me 99% of the time.” Frisk gave a small giggle.

“Yeah, you weren't so bad. I wish we had more time together, I mean more time not killing my friends.” Sans gave them a little wink.

“Well who knows, maybe I'll be reborn into this world, and I'll be happy next time. Then we can all be friends.” Chara looked at the other two, their eyes distant looking. Sans wasn't sure if ghosts could cry, but he bet that Chara would be right now if they could.

“Yeah, Chara.” Frisk gave a sniffle. “Please be reborn and meet us again soon.” They tilted their head to the side, giving a brave smile despite the tear that slide down their cheek.

“Yup, I look forward to seeing you again kiddo.” 

The three friends looked up at the shimmering night sky, and all gave wishes for a brighter future.


End file.
